Charlotte (Book One)
by harrypotterhogwarts
Summary: Charlotte Bolton was getting married to Ian James- a man she was only leaning onto the small strand of hope that they both were still in love when she was sent into the Doctor Who universe, a show she holds close to her heart. Now, transported randomly through the show's new era, she's rethinking that. (T for minor cursing) (Nine-Twelve) (Previously Titled 'Wonderland')
1. a joke of a wedding

There was no question to this statement: the Bolton Family are some of the best people on the neighborhood block. There are the fathers, Morgan and Greg, a college professor of history and the latter a physical education teacher at the nearby school.

Next was Gina, who kept her past surname Thomas- and was adopted at ten-years-old along with her sister at thirteen, Charlotte.

Charlotte loved her family more than anything else. When Gina got pregnant in secondary school, she organized the baby shower and invited as many she could. Then, while she was in university for a degree in philosophy, she met Ian James.

Ian was as handsome as a model and made Charlotte's universe speed up when she first met him- attempting to give him the directions to Room 102. Instead of saying the directions (which she could recite perfectly), Charlotte walked him to the room.

After a hard breakup with Jessie Westbrooke, a stunning woman with dark brown hair like Charlotte's, he was looking for anything to distract him from the constant memories of his ex-girlfriend. And she was the key to his wishes.

That was only the beginning of Charlotte and Ian. After college, they'll both move to Ian's home country- the United States. The short, brunette woman had to quit her dream of becoming a lawyer and got a job at the nearby mall.

At times, Ian would have to stay at work late, and Charlotte would get takeout- these times would become more and more as time progressed. As she ate the takeout, she would video chat with Gina and her lovely niece, Eliza.

Typically, Gina would sit with Eliza on her lap quiet- letting the young girl talk circles on the new Harry Potter movie and typically the new Doctor Who episode.

It was one night, once she closing the computer after a long chat with them both, Charlotte realized how late it was with no text or calls from her boyfriend. Not having worked the next day, she turns on the TV to Netflix.

She flipped through every show and movie before deciding what to watch... the same show Eliza has been begging her to watch for weeks but never has.

Lounging back into the couch, eating her Chinese takeout, the twenty-six-year-old had low expectations for Doctor Who despite the love for the show from both her niece and the people around her growing up.

It has been a year since she decided to watch the first episode, and only four months since the ninth season came to a close. But not a thought of her favorite show was on Charlotte's mind now.

Keeping a tight grip in the crook of her father's elbow, she felt a hundred pins poke on her body as the music started. Wearing a basic, yet classy, white dress the bride knew very well something was wrong.

Morgan began leading his shaking daughter down the aisle, believing she was just nervous. But, in reality, she was in pain... as she felt something churn in her stomach and felt it become hotter by the second.

Walking past the rows, Charlotte looked around at her family; Gina's mascara was dripping down her face and when Greg caught side of his oldest daughter his mouth hanged open, much like every other member.

Seeing their expressions, Charlotte looked down at herself... watching as she slowly turned from transparent and in a snap she left her wedding with a hiss of pain.

For the next month, Charlotte Bolton was the part of every news story and made headlines every day. Close family members and Ian were all interviewed, and during Morgan's interview, it was noted how he wouldn't let go of the elbow his daughter famously held onto during the disappearance.

* I do not own any recognizable characters, plots, or lines. The idea of time-jumping, as you may know, is a Doctor Who FanFiction cliche and has been done by numerous authors long before my time. The only characters I own are Charlotte and her family, that's it. I got this idea after reading many, many other amazing fanfics so some similarities may appear if I was careless enough to add them on accident (which I hope not)

I hope you have as good of a time reading this as I did writing it 3

Also on: wattpad and ao3

status: work in progress


	2. first day

Standing near the doorway of the TARDIS, Charlotte looked around the console room with her eyebrows furrowed in confused fascination. After appearing only seconds ago, the room she now stood in was the first thing that caught her eyes; it was a round room with coral support beams and gold-colored walls with hexagons spaced out next to each other- each giving off a yellow light. Charlotte, quickly taking in these parts of the room, instantly understood what her dream state was replicating… a fictional time machine from a TV show.

She marvels at the room. Her eyes wide and sparkling in astonishment, but her eyebrows pushed in together in confusion… how did she fall unconscious in the middle of the aisle? Why is she dreaming of the TARDIS (of all places)? Almost instantly after appearing, she saw him.

The Tenth Doctor stood at the console with his head lowered, still not taking any note of her. Wearing his typical brown pinstripe suit, his hair seemed even more tousled than usual. And seeing his solemn state, not wanting to intrude, Charlotte hesitated to speak up.

Getting uncomfortable, she crossed her arms over her chest and coughed to grab his attention. The Doctor, hearing her loud and clear, looked up from the console. To her, he didn't seem delighted nor irritated she was there. From his impassive expression and his silence, he didn't seem affected by her appearing out of nowhere at all.

Finally, she straightened her back, and was the first to break the silence, "Um… hello?"

"Hi," he greeted her, although it seemed as if it were forced out. Noticing her wedding dress, his head tilted to the side. "What are you wearing that dress for?"

She blinked, not quite believing someone was asking her that, before remembering who she was talking to. "... I was getting married."

"Why?"

"'Cause I can!" She huffed, growing exasperated with the whole situation and hoping she'd wake up already.

"But... why?" He continued to question her.

Charlotte, being pushed to the edge, repeated herself, "'Cause I can! What's it to you?"

"You're-" the Doctor started, but quickly cut himself off when a swarm of golden dust flew straight through the TARDIS door and reassembled itself into a ginger-haired bride with her back turned to them. Unlike with Charlotte, the Doctor's mouth gaped at her appearance. "What?" He questioned, clearly becoming dumbfounded.

This new woman, Donna, turning around, looks between the Doctor and Charlotte- scrutinizing the both of them. "Who are you?" She asked not trusting either of the two at this moment.

"But-" the Doctor started, but couldn't finish as she interrupted him.

"Where am I?"

The Doctor repeats himself, "What?"

"What the hell is this place?!" Shouted Donna.

In response, Charlotte merely shrugged her shoulders. Even though she knew clearly that this place looked like the TARDIS, she finds it highly more likely that this could be something else… anything else. She hoped so, as if this was real, that'd mean she's been separated from her home… and would there be a way back?

As Charlotte continued on with her wonderings, the Doctor still couldn't wrap his head around how Donna got here. "What? You can't do that, I wasn't. We're in flight. That is- that is physically impossible! How did-"

"Tell me where I am," she commanded, pushing her shoulders back. "I demand you tell right now, where am I?"

"In the- the TARDIS…" answered Charlotte, slowly.

Donna gave her a look. "Oh, don't sound so sure of yourself." She looked over at the Doctor. "Well, where am I?"

The Doctor answered her, with enough certainty Charlotte began to question her dream theory but not enough to deny it. "Inside the TARDIS."

"The what?"

He answered Donna again, "The TARDIS."

"The what?"

"The TARDIS!"

"The what?"

"This is the TARDIS," Charlotte piped up, glancing around the room before looking back at Donna. "Apparently. Don't get how I'm here. I'd like to know, actually," she said, crossing her arms over her chest and giving a sharp look to the Doctor (who remains silent as he looked over the console).

Looking over at her, Donna whispers to Charlotte, quiet enough for the Doctor not to hear, "Did he kidnap you?"

"What?" Caught off guard by her question, it took a second for Charlotte to take it in. "No! Definitely not."

Leaning over the console, the Doctor looked over at Donna suspiciously. "How did you get in here?" He asked her.

"Well, obviously, when you kidnapped me," she responded, standing rigid in place with steam practically coming out of her ears. "Who was it? Who's paying you? Is it Nerys? Oh my God, she's finally got me back. This has got Nerys written all over it."

He looks over to her puzzled. "Who the hell is Nerys?"

"Your best friend."

Shaking his head, the Doctor furrowed his eyebrows. "Hold on, wait a minute… Were you getting married too?"

"No, I was going ten-pin bowling." As Donna went on, the Doctor started fiddling with the control console. "What do you think, dumbo? I was halfway up the aisle! I've been waiting all my life for this. I was just seconds away, and then you, I don't know, you drugged me or something!"

Charlotte looks over to the hectic Donna, shaking her head. "Don't you think you should calm down… just a little?" Hesitantly, she added, "None of us knows what's happening either."

The Doctor looks over to the brunette from where he is hunched over the console. "Thanks, Charlotte."

She scrunched her eyebrows, when did I tell him my name? She wondered but still said out loud, "Yeah... no problem."

"Either way, I'm having the police on you!" Donna continued, wanting someone to blame for what's happened. "Me and my husband, as soon as he is my husband, we're going to sue the living backside off you!" At that note, Donna runs down the ramp to the door with Charlotte following close behind her.

Despite the Doctor's shouts for them to stop, Charlotte didn't stop until she was at the door. Donna opens the TARDIS doors to show the single most beautiful either of the women have ever seen.

Just outside of the TARDIS was a magnificent gaseous nebula. With a yellow bit in the middle, pinks and purples swirl around it, it mixed to create the breathtaking site they stare at with their mouth opened wide. In that instant, Charlotte could sense this wasn't a dream at all... not with how detailed this nebula was. So, she stood there unmoving as she stared into the nebula with Donna. Her right thumb and index finger pinched her left forearm, only to be met with a feeling of the said pinch. She tried over and over again, but each time followed the same result... she gulped, looking into the nebula with saddened eyes and a grim frown.

The Doctor spoke up behind the two, speaking calmly as seeing both of their faces (for different reasons) pensive, "You're in space. Outer space. This is my spaceship. It's called the TARDIS." Trying to take it in, Charlotte glanced back to him. "You already knew that though," he said to her.

"How-"

He interrupts her, "Later."

"How am I breathing?" Donna asked.

"The TARDIS is protecting us."

"Who are you two?"

The brunette crossed her arms over her chest, giving a thin smile. "I'm Charlotte Mary Bolton."

"The Doctor. You?"

''Donna."

He pauses, looking Donna up and down then looking back into the nebula, before asking her, "Human?"

"Yeah. Is that optional?"

"Well, it is for us." Us?

Donna looks back to him then glanced at Charlotte, but didn't seem to be shocked by anything. "Your aliens."

"No, no," Charlotte corrected her. "He is, I'm not."

For a few seconds, the three of them stood looking back into the nebula before Donna commented how it was freezing with the doors open, to which the Doctor slammed the doors closed. He darts back to the console, with the two women walking in the same direction.

The Doctor began talking quickly, "I don't understand that, and I understand everything. This- this can't happen! There is no way a human being can lock itself onto the TARDIS and transport itself inside-" after shuffling through a case beneath the console, he pulled a scope and pointed it to Donna's eyes, looking into it. "Impossible. Some sort of subatomic connection? Something in the temporal field? Maybe something pulling you into alignment with the Chronon shell. Maybe something macro mining your interior matrix. Maybe a genetic-"

Charlotte, fed up with how upbeat he was at a time like this, slaps the back of his head forgetting Donna was about to do so to his face. He put his hand up to the back of his head- deciding to ignore Charlotte, he paused before getting interrupted by her just as he was about to talk again. "Well, what are you waiting for?!" She snapped as her face turned bright red with her piped up vexation. "Get us back to our weddings, right now!"

Finally turning back to her, he fired back with, "Right! Fine! I'll get you back to your wedding!" He spat the word out as if it were venomous. Rushing over to the console, he looked straight back at Donna. "Where is your wedding?"

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Muttered Charlotte, exasperated. She was hoping, if she left first, she wouldn't have to join them in the events coming and, obviously, those hopes were squashed now.

"Saint Mary's, Hayden Road, Chiswick, London, England, Earth, the Solar System." She replied snarkily. Charlotte notices, as the Doctor remains distracted at the console, Donna behind him and grabs a purple blouse hanging off the railing. "I knew it, acting all innocent. We're not the first, are we? How many women have you abducted?"

The Doctor looks down to the garment long-faced- similar to the expression Charlotte wore finding out she wasn't in any dream. Quietly, he answered her, "That's my friend's."

"Where is she, then? Popped out for a spacewalk?"

"She's gone."

"Gone where?" While Charlotte completely understood how Donna was scared in this situation, causing her to act this way, seeing how she was acting towards the Doctor began to get under Bolton's skin.

Charlotte gulped and looked over to her. "Donna," seethed Charlotte in a hushed tone. Glimpsing at her, Donna, however, didn't back down from her question.

After just a second of silence, he responded with, "I lost her."

"Well, you can hurry up and lose me!" She watched him, just then realizing the sensitivity of the topic. "How do you mean, lost?"

He looks to Donna with a shadow over his eyes. As he approached her, Donna watched him in distress as he snatched the purple blouse from her hands. Making his way back to the doors, he looks back to Donna and Charlotte as they stand beside each other- looking at him with blank faces.

"Right! Chiswick."

* * *

It was an awkward first trip in the TARDIS, for both Donna and Charlotte. While Donna was about seething in silence, Charlotte sat on the jumpseat catching many of the worried glances thrown at her from the Doctor. Despite that, he somehow successfully landed the TARDIS in a courtyard nearly surrounded by unnamed buildings towering over them.

Walking out into the courtyard, Charlotte immediately felt the chill of the winter breeze hit against her bare arms. The Doctor walked out just after her, seemingly not bothered by the Christmas chill.

Realizing quickly this wasn't her church, Donna turned to him. "I said, Saint Mary's. What sort of Martian are you? Where's this?"

Like the rest of them, the Doctor looks around the courtyard. "Something's wrong with her. The TARDIS's like she's-" going in through the door they just came out, the Doctor ran back in yelling, "Recalibrating! She's digesting. What is it? What have you eaten? What's wrong?"

Looking into the TARDIS from outside, Charlotte spotted the Doctor stroke the console- her stomach spun around. Obviously, she knew the spaceship was bigger on the inside... but actually seeing is such a different experience than watching it on TV. It was like riding a roller coaster for the first time; you know what's coming up, but once it finished, it felt far different from you thought it would.

Charlotte steps back inside, before stepping out just as quickly and a smile took over her face as she looked in the box. Her hands flung up to her hair (once curled and now knotted up) and pushed the hair back. Chuckling slightly to herself, she shook her head… who would've thought this would happen?

As the Doctor continues to ramble, Charlotte notices Donna pace around the TARDIS- even more surprised by the dimensions than her. What got me into this? Thought Charlotte, Could it be the coffee I had earlier? I knew I shouldn't have trusted Jessie with my order.

She looks over as Donna came out from her right- looking up to the TARDIS bewildered. Donna sticks her head inside, but (just as Charlotte did moments ago) left speedily with a hand covering her mouth. Charlotte catches Donna's gaze as she stumbled backward away from the TARDIS. Looking up to the ship utterly bewildered and terrified, Donna quickly turns her back and ran away from the POlic Box.

"Donna!" Calls out Charlotte, hoisting up her own dress and chasing the red-head as fast as she could with her low-heeled shoes.

Alerted by Charlotte's shout for Donna, the Doctor quit his rambling at the console and looked over to her, finally noticing her leaving, he made a b-line out of the TARDIS to her. Falling in step with Donna, who spared him only a glance, he got there just before Charlotte.

"Donna," he says to her as Charlotte reaches them.

"Leave me alone," she responded without a glance. "I just want to get married."

"Come back to the TARDIS," he suggested.

"No way. That box is too..." As they were turning around the corner, Donna pauses to find the right word. "Weird."

While Charlotte nods in agreement, the Doctor shrugs. "It's... bigger on the inside, that's all."

"Oh! That's all?" She remarked sarcastically and then checking her watch. "Ten past three. I'm going to miss it."

"You could call 'em," Charlotte suggested, trying to be helpful before remembering she didn't have her phone. "On a payphone, maybe."

"How do I do that?"

"Haven't you got money?" Asked the Doctor.

Stopping in her steps, Donna looked up at him incredulously. "I'm in my wedding dress. It doesn't have pockets. Who has pockets? Have you ever seen a bride with pockets? When I went to my fitting at Chez Alison, the one thing I forgot to say is 'give me pockets!'"

Charlotte, who's had her hands stuffed in her dress pockets the whole time didn't say anything. Instead, she felt the wristwatch that she felt odd wearing earlier that day and a lonely mint wrapper. Pulling out the watch, she slid it back onto her wrist without as much of a glimpse sent her way.

"...This man you're marrying. What's his name?"

Suddenly, Donna's face glowed with happiness. "Lance."

"Good luck, Lance," remarked the Doctor, causing a snort to come from Charlotte.

Donna's manner changes back instantly. "Oi! No stupid Martian is going to stop me from getting married." She held up her skirt, about to leave. "To hell with you!" On that note, she runs away.

As Charlotte follows after her, the Doctor stood back a second. Sighing out deeply, he says, "I'm... I'm not... I'm not- I'm not from Mars." Charlotte stops chasing after Donna, looking back to the Doctor who still stood there.

"You coming?!" She shouted to him, to which he responded with walking in the same direction of Donna.

Just as a taxi drove past Donna, Charlotte and the Doctor caught up and stood beside her. "Why's his light on?" she wondered.

"There's another one!" The Doctor shouts to her when he caught sight of a taxi driving near.

"Taxi! Oi!" She hollered but the said taxi drove past them with its light on.

Spotting another taxi, Charlotte shouts, "There's one!" Pointing to an incoming taxi, she failed to get its attention by waving.

"Oi!" It still didn't stop despite Donna's shouts.

Seeing how none of them would stop, the Doctor says to Donna sarcastically, "Do you have this effect on everyone? Why aren't they stopping?"

"They think I'm in fancy dress..."

As a taxi drove past one driver yells to them, "Stay off the scotch, ladies!"

"They think we're drunk," added Charlotte, looking as if she were smacked in the face. As the taxi drove along, she glared at it.

As two guys drive past they holler out their window, "You're fooling no one, mates."

"They think we're in drag!" Yells Donna, just as insulted as Charlotte- who practically shook in anger.

"Hold on, hold on," eased the Doctor. He put his fingers between his lips and made a long, piercing whistle. As Charlotte cringed at the whistle, Donna covered her ears. Luckily, his whistle easily got the attention of a taxi driver as he immediately pulled up right in front of the three.

Charlotte looked up to the Doctor surprised. "Where the hell did you learn to whistle like that?"

He thought for a second before answering, "Oh, I don't know."

With little room in the back of the small taxi, Donna was lucky enough to sit up front while the Doctor and Charlotte were forced to sit shoulder-to-shoulder in the back row. Abruptly, Donna tells the driver where to go, "Saint Mary's in Chiswick, just off Hayden Road. It's an emergency. I'm getting married." As he began to drive she continued, "Just... hurry up!"

The driver looks back to the Doctor and Charlotte from the mirror then back to Donna for a second as he drives, "You know it'll cost you, sweetheart? Double rates today."

"Just our luck," Charlotte grumbles, the Doctor nods his head in agreement beside her.

Frustrated, Donna rolls her eyes and turns in her seat to the back row. "Oh, my God. Have you got any money?"

"Er, no," answers the Doctor, awkwardly. "Haven't you?"

"Pockets!" She reminded.

"Oh," he nods along, looking over to the woman beside him. "Charlotte?"

She looked back to him, not believing that he was asking her the same question. "I didn't think I'd have to bring my wallet down the aisle!"

"No money?" Asked the driver.

"No," Charlotte told him as polite as possible, knowing very well someone else in this car wouldn't do the same. "Just drop us off back there."

"That's what I was gonna do anyway."

Just like that, the two in the back seat sat silently as Donna continued yelling at the driver. Even once he dropped them off outside of the Henrik's, she still shouts at him from the outside, "And that goes double for your mother!" When the taxi sped off she said to the two, "I'll have him. I've got his number. I'll have him. Talk about the Christmas spirit."

"You were being a bit-" began Charlotte.

"Is it Christmas?" Interrupted the Doctor, not wanting to push Donna closer to the edge.

"Well, duh. Maybe not on Mars, but here it's Christmas Eve." Then, spotting a red box in the distance she points to it, saying, "Phone box!" Running up to it, Donna immediately stated as the three stood together in a line, "We can reverse the charges!"

While they stood in line, the Doctor questions her, "How come you're getting married on Christmas Eve?"

"Can't bear it," She admits. "I hate Christmas. Honeymoon, Morocco. Sunshine, lovely." Moving up in line, they now stand at the phone booth. "What's the operator? I've not done this in years. What do you dial? 100?"

Charlotte opened her mouth, about to tell her what to dial, but the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver instead. "Just call the direct," he said.

"What did you do?"

He waved his hand around trying to think of a reply. "Something… Martian." Charlotte rolls her eyes at that. "Now phone. I'll get money!"

As he joins the queue at a cash machine, Charlotte heads to the nearest newsstand. Responding to the man running the stand's 'Merry Christmas' with 'Happy Holidays,' she began skimming through the many newspapers hanging on the stand- some on sports and others on politics. Looking down the date on one newspaper Charlotte unsurprisingly read '24th of December, 2007.' Just nine years and a few months ago for her, back when she was seventeen going onto eighteen.

Looking past the newsstand to where the Doctor was, Charlotte spots him using the sonic screwdriver on an ATM. She looked away from him and faced the middle-aged man running the stand. "Could I borrow your phone?" She asked him.

Stuffing his hands into his pocket, he pulled out his flip-phone. "Yeah, sure." He handed her the phone.

"Haven't seen one of these in a while," She mumbled to herself, reeling in the nostalgia of having a phone just like this back in the day.

"What?"

"Nothing." She then put in one of the few phone numbers she knew by heart and puts the phone up to her ear.

After only a few seconds of silence, the voice of Greg Bolton broke through, sounding as if he just woke up. "Hello?" He says. "Who's this?"

Charlotte's breath hitched… this was him, but it wasn't. As much as he was her dad, he wasn't. It confused her (but not as much as other things that have happened today). There was one question she needed answered, though; did she exist here? Was there another version of herself running about? Her free hand went up to massage her eyebrow as she replies, "Hi, uh, do you happen to know any Charlottes?"

"Which one? Oliver? Lee? Jenkins?"

Charlotte bit the inside of her lip as her heart fell a million miles down in her chest. "I'll take that as a no, what about a Gina Thomas?"

"Who? No, I don't suppose so," he answered. "Ma'am, I think you have the wrong number."

At that word, Charlotte's eyes turned glassy as she became choked up. Throughout the call, she knew he didn't know her, not even Gina, but no part of her wanted to admit it. "Yeah… I do too," She pauses, seeing cash flying every which way from the ATM the Doctor previously stood in line for, now he was running towards her as she tried to finish the conversation. Not giving Charlotte any time to hand back the phone after hanging up, he began sprinting while pulling her along with him by the hand. At first, she was close to tripping over her feet but hastily fell in rhythm with the Doctor as they rushed to the TARDIS.

They ran straight into the TARDIS, the doors closing behind Charlotte as he let go of her hand and started to send the TARDIS away from the courtyard. As the Doctor flies the ship, Charlotte, who stood at the console, yelps as it seems to bounce off of something harshly.

She looked towards the monitor he stands in front of to see the surveillance of the TARDIS as it hurtles around above a busy road. As he just barely missed hitting a car, she held onto a railing beside the doors.

While he continues to maneuver around the control like a second-nature, she looks over at the monitor to see the surveillance of the TARDIS as it hurdles around above a busy road. As the Doctor just barely missed hitting a car, she held onto the console tighter. "What are we doing, exactly?" Charlotte asked him, needing a reminder for this part.

"Trying to save Donna from a group of robots," he explained, causing her mouth to form an 'O' as she remembered this scene. Sparks started flying off of the console, to which his response was smashing it with a hammer and yelling, "Behave!"

Like she was jumping on a trampoline, Charlotte felt the TARDIS bounce off the tarmac. She caught sight of the Doctor as he tied a long piece of string around the console. "I could've just done that myself, y'know!" Charlotte shouted to him, even with doubting she could.

But, like he has been ever since she'd arrived, he only gave a passing glance at her before ignoring what she said in a whole. While he stuck the end of the string between his teeth, Charlotte wondered if he'll continue ignoring her until she returns home and why he was in the first place. He turns away from the console ran to the doorway and opened the doors wide- his arms forcing the doors to stay open despite the blistering winds pushing in as the TARDIS follows alongside Donna's cab.

The Doctor looks to Donna, who is sitting in the backseat of the said taxi with her window rolled up and the door locked. "Open the door!" He shouts to her over the traffic as Charlotte got a closer look at the events through the monitor.

Not hearing him inside the taxi, Donna hollers back with the window rolled up, "Do what?"

"Open the door!"

Still, with the window up, they had to read her lips to understand what she shouts back, "I can't, it's locked," she said pointing to the door's lock.

With an exasperated gasp, Charlotte shouts to the Doctor, "Window!"

"Yeah, yeah." He pointed the sonic at the door which at last allowed Donna to roll her window down.

As if the two didn't know already, Donna shouts over the traffic, "Santa's a robot."

"I can see that," said the Doctor. "Open the door, Donna."

"What for?"

"You need to jump!" Cried Charlotte, heard clearly by Donna even with her standing at the console. "That's what for!" Unnoticed by any of them, the robot turns his head ever so slightly in the driver's seat.

Donna nearly scoffed at the demand. "I'm not bleedin' flip jumping! I'm supposed to be getting married!"

The robot started to accelerate the taxi, getting farther away from the TARDIS. The Doctor, noticing the speeding taxi, pulled on the little string stuck between his teeth, causing more bangs to erupt from the console as the string pulled on the levers and switches.

Charlotte, despite only being here for maybe twenty minutes, cringes at the sight of fire spreading across the console. Noticing an encased fire-extinguish just under the console, she smashed the glass case with the hammer and took it out. Now, holding the fire extinguisher in her hand, she tries to remember what the firefighter, who came in one day in primary school, told her to do.

Then it clicked in her head, that acronym she could (somehow) never forget. PASS. "Pull the pin," she said out loud, speeding up her memory. She pulls the pin out from the nozzle. "Aim." Charlotte knew to aim low, towards the base of the fire, but wasn't entirely sure where that would be in this situation.

Standing away from the console, Charlotte whispered to herself, "Squeeze." Once doing so to the lever, she nearly gasped in surprise… not thinking it'd actually work. And then it came time for the final step, 'sweeping' the white powder over the console, she extinguished the fires as the Doctor continued helping the stubborn Donna.

"Listen to me!" He shouts to her, "You've got to jump."

Donna, still insistent on not jumping across the motorway into TARDIS, shouts back, "I'm not jumping on a motorway!"

"Whatever that thing is, it needs you. And whatever it needs you for, it's not good! Now, come on!"

"I'm in my wedding dress!"

Exasperated, the Doctor shouted back, "Yes! You look lovely! Come on!"

Finally realizing the trouble she's in, Donna opens the door and looks back down at the ground moving below her. Gulping, she positioned herself to jump to the Doctor, who held his arms out to catch her. However, looking back down at the tarmac, her feet turned cold. "I can't do it," she said.

The Doctor, still holding arms out to catch her, replied calmly, "Trust me."

"What about her, Charlotte, does she trust you?" Donna was close to asking about the girl he lost, but she knew from how he acted before it was a sore subject... So, instead, she asked about Charlotte- who the Doctor looks at as if she was a book he's read a thousand times but got looks back as if he wasn't supposed to exist.

He nods with no question in mind. "Yes!" The adventures he's had with her gave him such a straight answer- yes, sometimes they wouldn't be on the best terms... Yet, he finds it ludicrous to say she doesn't trust him as he does her even this early on. "She does trust me! Now jump!"

On that note, Donna launched herself from the taxi's backseat into the TARDIS- falling on top of the Doctor and landing on the floor with him. The TARDIS' doors slammed shut.

Her hair wild, Charlotte sets aside the empty fire extinguisher on the floor, while the white powder from it encases the console fully. Covering his mouth, the Doctor rushed to the console to fly them away. As he begins to put the TARDIS in flight, Charlotte catches Donna fanning her hand in front of her face.

"What?" Donna questioned her, seeing her look at her like the glances she sent at the Doctor… like she was confused by the ginger just being there.

"Nothing," She quickly replies, looking away just as instantly.

With the leftover smoke and white powder surrounding the TARDIS console, the Doctor had just a little more trouble than usual navigating around the levers and buttons on the console. Charlotte and Donna, still not used to the bumpy rides, both hung onto a railing tighter than they would've any other time due to him relying on muscle memory for the placements of some buttons.

He fanned away some powder above a part of the console opposite of the two women. "Ah-ha!" He pulls down a lever to the third knock, proudly. Did he not know where it was?! Charlotte thought, scared out of her wits.

Then the TARDIS came to a full stop. Despite the short distance, to the brunette woman, it felt like an eternity. With Donna in front and Charlotte following after her, they leave the TARDIS only to see they were on the Shoe Lane rooftop. Behind the latter, the Doctor closes the door and joins the two as they look over the edge of the building.

Turning to face Charlotte, he says as if it were a question, "You were getting married?"

"Yeah… And?"

"To who? Where?"

As a wind chill came in, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Ian James. Church in South Croydon." When he gave no response back, she tilts her head. "What?"

He looked away, then looked back to her. "You never told me you were getting married."

"What do you mean? I literally said it."

"No, earlier." Seeing her about to further interrogate him, and knowing they had no time, he dismissed answering her questions with, "Later." With an annoyed eye roll, Charlotte then stood in silence along with them until the Doctor says, "Funny thing is, for a spaceship, she doesn't really do that much flying."

Looking over to the redhead on her other side, Charlotte notices Donna slump over after looking at her watch. "We'd better give her a couple of hours," he finished, then noticing Donna's down mood. "You all right?" He asked her.

She shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

"Did we miss it?"

"Yeah," She replied.

The Doctor continues, "Well, you can book another date..." Charlotte looked down to her feet, Ian wouldn't have done that in a million years... in fact, he'd break the marriage into a thousand pieces. He was that kind of guy- one thing goes wrong and he'd immediately quit.

"'Course we can."

"You've still got the honeymoon..." Ian didn't plan one- saying it was 'too much money' and 'isn't every day a honeymoon with me?' Looking back on it, from the new perspective of the wedding being called off, Charlotte wishes she could put some sense into him. They had enough money and it would've been fine with her to just go to the next town over, albeit not preferred. Not realizing it, her jaw clenches as she grew tense thinking about it.

Donna fires back with, "It's just a holiday now."

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry."

"It's not your fault," Donna assured him.

"Oh? That's a change."

"Wish we had a time machine," Says Donna out of the blue, much to the Doctor's surprise. "Then we could go back and get it right."

Charlotte hides a large smirk. "If only," she drawled, glancing at the Doctor.

"Yeah, yeah. But even if I did, I couldn't go back on someone's personal timeline," He paused. "Apparently."

Moving to sit on the edge of the roof, letting her legs dangle off, Donna looked to the city beyond them- including her cathedral far off.

The Doctor, looking back to Charlotte, asks her, "Are you cold?"

Despite having nothing covering her arms and being cold earlier, the woman answered with, "No." She leaves his side and sat on Donna's left with her feet dangling off the edge. While she wasn't scared of sitting so high up, she was scared of quite a few things; spiders, failure, rejection... heights just wasn't one of them.

Now sitting on the other side of Donna, the Doctor draped his jacket over her shoulders. Looking down at the pinstripe jacket hanging over her shoulders, Donna scrunched up her nose. "God, you're skinny," she comments. "This wouldn't fit a rat." At that, Charlotte smiles.

"Oh, and you'd better put this on." From his pocket, the Doctor pulls out what looked like a wedding ring to Donna.

"Oh, do you have to rub it in?"

"These creatures can trace you. This is a bio-damper," He holds it up, in between his fingers. "Should keep you hidden." He slides the ring onto one of her fingers- causing Charlotte to become curious as to why he wasn't as worried about her case. "With this ring, I thee bio-damp."

"For better or for worse," said Donna.

With a faint smile, Charlotte played along. "I now pronounce you bio-damped."

Donna switched the subject back to the Robot Santas, "So, come on then. Robot Santas, what are they for?"

"Just scavengers," answers the Doctor.

Charlotte adds on to what he said, trying to sound a little smart with her knowledge. "Old Saint Nick is just a disguise- just to blend in," She told her, then pointed her finger to the Doctor. "He met them last year."

"What happened then?"

Perplexed, the Doctor looks over at Donna. "... Great big spaceship over London? You didn't notice?"

"I had a bit of a hangover."

Deciding not to poke at her at this point in time, he nodded in the direction of the Powell Estate. "I spent Christmas Day just over there, the Powell Estate, with this family, and- never mind. My friend, she had this family. Well, they were..." The Doctor, swimming in his own thoughts, paused. "Still, gone now."

Charlotte looks over to him, inhaling tightly as her eyebrows scrunched together and her faint smile turned into a deep frown. She knew he was hiding something from her, and she would definitely like to know before she leaves for home.

"Your friend... who was she?" Donna asked him.

"Question is, what do camouflaged robot mercenaries want with you? And how did you get inside the TARDIS? I don't know. What's your job?"

"I'm a secretary."

He began scanning her with the sonic screwdriver. "It's weird. I mean, you're not special, you're not powerful, you're not connected, you're not clever, you're not important..."

Looking over to him from her spot, Charlotte gives him a harsh eye. "You done yet?"

"Sorry," he muttered, insincerely.

"This friend of yours. Just before she left, did she punch you in the face?" He continued scanning her until she swatted the sonic in his hand. "Stop bleeping me!"

"What kind of secretary?"

"I'm at HC Clements- It's where I met Lance. I was temping." She looked away as if having her own little flashback. "And Lance, he's the head of HR!" She exclaimed. "He doesn't need to bother with me. But he was nice, he was funny. And it turns out he thought everyone else was really snotty too. So that's how it started, me and him. One cup of coffee. That was it."

After her story, the Doctor looked over at Donna with an eyebrow raised. "When was this?"

"Six months ago," she said, unfazed.

Charlotte looks over to the other woman. "Isn't that a little too soon to get married?"

"Well... he insisted."

The brunette nodded along, looking to the city as she says, "Oh, I'm sure."

"What?" Donna asked, not particularly hearing what she said.

She shakes her head. "Nothing, continue."

Finally able to continue with her story, she unknowingly caused both of them to be highly amused. "And he nagged, and he nagged me." She exhales deeply for effect. "And he just wore me down. And then finally, I just gave in."

Once her story wrapped up, the Doctor asks her, "What does HC Clements do?"

"Oh, security systems. You know... entry codes, ID cards, that sort of thing." A second later, she added, "If you ask me, it's a posh name for locksmiths."

"Keys..." mused the Doctor.

Donna sighed. "Anyway, enough of my CV. Come on, it's time to face the consequences. Oh, this is going to be so shaming. You can do the explaining, Martian-boy." She stands up off the ledge.

"Yeah. I'm not from Mars."

Charlotte gave him a pat on the back. "Doesn't mean you can't do the explaining."

While the two stood back onto the roof, Donna said to them, "Oh, I had this great big reception all planned. Everyone's going to be heartbroken."

Charlotte looks back to the TARDIS. "Still can't use her, right?" The Doctor nods.

"It isn't far," told Donna, handing back the jacket. "Just have to walk fast."

The Doctor swung the pinstripe jacket back on. "Lead the way."

She began leading them to the Reception, but as she began walking they gave each other a side-eye from behind the redhead. "Hurry up!" She yelled to them, the two following suit.


	3. first day II

**_At the reception, everyone was having a great time under a great big disco ball when the three entered._** _Is this what people at home are doing right now? _Thought Charlotte. _Oh, Lord please say no._

Everyone was dancing to the music, even Lance. When Donna entered her reception, no one noticed for a moment- she stood there in front of Charlotte and the Doctor, struck by lightning. Once the party realized who stood at the open doors, all of the merriment screeched to a halt.

Donna was the first to break the silence as her family stared at her, wide-eyed. "You had the reception without me?"

"Donna, what happened to you?" Lance asked her, seemingly worried.

Still filled with anger to them, she repeated herself. "You had the reception without me?"

"Hello," the Doctor greets in the awkward silence between lines. "I'm the Doctor and this Charlotte Bolton." The Bolton girl gave an awkward wave.

She turns back to the two standing behind her. "They had the reception without me," she repeats for the third time.

"Yes, I gathered."

The blonde girl in the front pipes up, "Well, it was all paid for," she explains. "Why not?" For a second she reminded Charlotte of Jessie Westbrooke, someone who never ceased to annoy her in her home universe. Seeing how close she stood to Lance, it even furthered the resemblance.

"Thank you, Nerys."

Sylvia, Donna's mum, moved to the front of the crowd. "Well, what were we supposed to do?" She defended. "I got your silly little message in the end. _'I'm on Earth?' _Very funny. What the hell happened? How did you do it? I mean, what's the trick, because I'd love to know." At that word, everyone erupts in their own thoughts.

However, they all shut up when Donna suddenly burst into tears, with everyone (excluding Nerys) applauding her in pity. Lance brings Donna into his arms, instead of crying into his shoulder as he thought, she turns to face the two and sent the Doctor and Charlotte a quick wink from over his shoulder. She quickly continued her act.

Along with everyone else, Charlotte applauded her as the corners of her mouth rose into a smile.

During a dance later on, Lance and Donna seemed to be happy again as they danced with each other as if this were the first reception. Watching, Charlotte nearly forget the events to transpire. She kept her head forward as she spoke to the Doctor, who stands beside her against the bar. "Doctor, I have to come clean about something."

"What?" He asked, almost surprised.

She took a short breath. "I know what is going to happen tonight_. _Look, I think I was sent here from a parallel world where-"

"I know."

Her eyes grew wide as her head snapped to him. "You _what?"_

"I put off telling you... but I know you already. I know that your universe had a show about my life. You've- You _will_ tell me about your family-"

"Stop it," Charlotte snapped. "Just... stop it." If he knows a future version of her, that'd mean she doesn't go home yet. She takes in a deep, wavering sigh from the thought. "But that doesn't answer why you've been treating Donna different to me."

He tilts his head. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you seem more concerned about her appearing in the TARDIS than me..."

"That's because I am," He responded, but seeing her blank expression he adds, "I'm used to having you appear in the TARDIS, because you have since my eighth regeneration..." his nose scrunches up as Charlotte's jaw falls to the floor. "Well, just that one time, but either way, you jump around my timeline... from one me, to the next, or back in my time."

Charlotte forgot how to breathe. All she'd like to do is go home, but instead she's been thrown into _Doctor Who _for who knows how long. "How come I- I don't go farther back in your regenerations?" She wondered, why only the newer ones? It wasn't a complaint at all... Charlotte has yet to even finish the first season, as the wedding and work took up all her time.

He shrugged. "I believe the energy inside you that takes you throughout my timeline just doesn't have the quantity to go far enough back- so, instead, it bounces back and forth through the same group of my regenerations."

Charlotte nods, it made a little bit of sense. "I get that..."

"Anyways I have a message from the future you," He announced with no excitement from her. _"'Pay attention at 0-2-0-4.'"_

"A number with a message?" She thought it was going to be something easy... like not to trust someone, but this wasn't that, and she didn't want to juggle decoding it right now. "I don't get it."

"Well neither do I, do you still have that phone?"

"Yeah," she pulls the flip-phone from her dress pocket, holding it out to him. "It can't search, though."

"True..."

Putting the phone back in her pocket, she looks over to a man standing only a few steps away from her holding a smartphone, "Do you mind if I borrow that?" She asked him. "I need to call a friend."

He gave her the phone without question. "Yeah, sure."

Taking the phone from the stranger she hands it over to the Doctor. "Here you go."

The Doctor slide on his glasses before he took the phone. Then, looking over his shoulder, Charlotte watched as he searched up HC Clements. He inspected the room before pulling out the sonic screwdriver and used it to speed up the process of finding what he was looking for.

_"Come on, take me home," _the Singer sang upfront. _"'Cause my body's tired of travelling and my heart don't wish to roam."_

As many other results flashed across the screen, it stopped at one. _'Sole Prop. TORCHWOOD' _it read. The Doctor closed the phone, handing it back to Charlotte. The bride hands it back to the stranger beside her. "Thank you," she said to him, who responded with a hum.

_"Well, you took me in, you stole my heart, I cannot roam no more," _he continued to sing._ "'Cause love it stays within you, it doesn't wash up on a shore. Then a fighting man forgets each cut, each knock, each bruise, each fall. But a fighting man cannot forget, why his love don't roam no more."_

Charlotte noticed how the Doctor was looking into the crowd of dancers with a melancholy expression. So deep in his pool of thoughts, he hardly noticed Charlotte looking into the crowd as well... remembering a wedding she and Ian attended a few years prior- the laughter, the happiness, she thought nothing could ruin her and Ian's day.

She finds her head subconsciously bobbing to the music. She too was in the deep end of her thoughts, longing for her family over anything else right now, that she gave little notice to the Doctor as he left the spot standing beside her.

Glancing to where he stood previously, Charlotte realizes he left. She looked around the room for him worried and spots him across the room beside the cameraman, she leaves the spot against the bar and promptly walked to stand beside him

"Oh, I taped the whole thing," the cameraman tells him just as Charlotte reaches them. "They've all had a look. They said sell it to _You've Been Framed._ I said, more like the News. Here we are." He began playing the video.

They watched the replay of Donna turned into gold particles then, with a scream, the golden particles flew out of the wedding. "Can't be," says the Doctor. "Play it again."

"Clever, mind," the cameraman adds. "Good trick, I'll give her that. I was clapping." Playing the footage again, the Doctor's brows furrowed.

Charlotte hears clapping from the footage. "Yeah," She nods. "I think I heard you."

"But that looks like... Huon Particles!"

"What's that then?"

The Doctor ignores the question, taking off his glasses and continues talking to himself. "That's impossible. That's... ancient! Huon energy doesn't exist anymore, not for billions of years! So old that..." A string of words rang in Charlotte's head as his and her eyes get drawn to Donna- how could she be so forgetful? "It can't be hidden by a bio-damper!"

He grabs her hand, pulling her with him again as they ran to a window showing the front of the church only to see a group of Santas slowly approaching. Running back, he continued to pull Charlotte behind him through the crowd of dancers to Donna and Lance. "Donna!" He shouted to her from across the room, as Charlotte fell back after releasing her hand from his.

The Doctor broke up the two dancers, facing Donna. "Donna, they've found you."

She quits dancing and looks over to him. "But you said I was safe," she looks over to Charlotte too once she reached them. "You _both _said I was safe." Charlotte has never said such a thing, but didn't correct her.

"The bio-damper doesn't work," the Doctor quickly filled in. "We need to get everyone out of here."

"My God," Donna looks around the room, glancing at her family and friends. "It's all my family."

"Out the back door!" He shouts, then leading the two to the back door.

Charlotte passed and pushed through the many dancers as she ran behind the Doctor. Unfortunately for them, through the windows covering the said back door, they were met with a pair of Santas marching down the sidewalk- one holding a menacing trombone and the other with a controller.

"Maybe not." He admits.

They left the door and sprinted to a French window, looking out they saw another pair of robot Santas- one held a golden trumpet and the other holds a controller. "We're trapped," says Donna.

"No, kidding," Charlotte responds. Then she remembered what the control in the Santa's hand controls- her heart skips a beat as her eyes widen. "Doctor... Christmas trees."

"What about them?" Donna asks instead, still looking to the Santas outdoors.

Charlotte was close to answering in his place, but he clarifies it for her. "They kill," said the Doctor, bluntly. He next began warning people about the trees, running around and shouting _"get away from the trees!"_ Donna and Charlotte did the same, rushing around and spreading the same message.

"Don't touch the trees!" Shouts Donna.

Charlotte ushers a group of children away from the Christmas tree, "Get away from the tree!" She repeated over to them, hoping they wouldn't run back to it as she moves along and shout the same words to the adults.

"Get away from the Christmas trees!" She heard the Doctor shout as he runs around the room. "Everyone get away from them! Everyone stay away from the trees! Stay away from the trees!"

"Oh, for God's sake," Sylvia says near the Doctor, while Charlotte stood near a corner of the room. "The man's an idiot. Why? What harm's a Christmas tree going to-" Sylvia paused, as the plastic baubles started floating in the air. "Oh."

The three eyed the baubles as they danced in midair, however, everyone else looks to the ornaments amazed- chatting away with astonished smiles. In a matter of seconds, their amazement turns into terror as the baubles began dive-bombing as many people in the room they could- exploding loudly, and causing chaos as everyone tried to find somewhere to take cover.

Charlotte spotted a man go flying into the air and drop onto the wedding cake. Presents were being blown up to shreds as one of the baubles lands near them. Charlotte huddles on the ground with a shaky couple underneath the refreshment table with a long table cloth keeping them all hidden from the baubles- if they had cameras connecting them to the scavengers outside.

She hears the Doctor's voice even over the panicking wedding attendees, "Oi! Santa!" He yells to the robots over the ruckus. "Word of advice. If you're attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver..." He holds up the microphone at the DJ system, saying into it, "Don't let him near the sound system."

"Plug your ears," Charlotte warns the couple next to her, as she covered her own ears with the palms of my hands. Just in time, the man and woman plugged their ears with their fingers, as the Doctor jammed the sonic screwdriver into the DJ's deck, resulting in a horrendous ring.

Once the buzzing stopped, and all of the robots were shook to pieces, people stood up to find their friends and family**_. _**Charlotte crawled from underneath the table to spot a fallen bauble split in half. Her heart dropped... if the Doctor waited any longer...

She doesn't think about it any more than she did. Standing up, the woman helped the shaken couple up as well then went to stand behind the Doctor as he checked out one of the heads of six collapsed scavengers. "Look at that. Remote control for the decorations," he held a remote control up in another head, showing Donna and Charlotte. "But there's a second remote control for the robots. They're not scavengers anymore. I think someones took possession." He explained.

"Never mind all that, you're a doctor," Donna says to him, standing beside the other bride. "People have been_ hurt,"_ she stressed. Charlotte nodded along, but with the Doctor's back turned to them, he did not notice.

"Nah, they wanted you alive, look," He threw one of the dead baubles to Donna. "They're not active now."

Catching the ornament easily, she continued, "All I'm saying, you could help."

While understanding what Donna was saying completely, even agreeing with bits of it, Charlotte disagrees that he isn't helping. "I think he wants to help, just in his own way..."

The Doctor held the head (that has been stripped of the Santa mask) to his ear. "Got to think of the bigger picture... There's still a signal!"

He takes off running with the robots head, with Charlotte a little behind and Donna following soon after. Outside the Reception Hotel, the Doctor's running screeched to a halt in front of a beautiful fountain. As he began to sonic the robot head in his arm, he stated, "There's someone behind this, directing the roboforms."

Donna caught up, standing on Charlotte's other side. "But why is it me? What have I done?"

"If we find the controller, we'll find that out," He moved past the two brides, pointing the sonic from the head and up to the sky. "Oh! It's up there. Something in the sky."

They stand there in silence for a moment, as he had the screwdriver to the sky. Coming into the hotel's parking lot was a group of ambulances. Charlotte lowered her head- ashamed she couldn't stop it, but knew if she didn't the events to transpire may have been altered.

She put her attention to the much bigger problem- the Racnoss was what the alien was named, right? Maybe, she could do something, maybe even save someone. But, she couldn't. Anything and everything could go wrong with Charlotte here... World War Three, the Apocalypse- for a second she considered running away, but then remembered what the Doctor told her earlier.

Lance comes up from behind the trio, noticed first by Donna who leaves the Doctor and Charlotte's side to talk with her fiancé near the back of an ambulance. His arm lowers a second later. Alerted, he turns to Charlotte promptly. "I lost the signal!" He pointed the sonic to the Robot's head once again, trying to find the signal. "The connections gone."

In just a second, after he rolled the head into a bush, he slipped the sonic screwdriver back into the inside pocket of his jacket as he followed behind Charlotte to where Donna and Lance stand together with troubled faces. Not noticing their expressions, though, he immediately looked to the woman. "I've lost the signal, Donna, we've got to get to your office. HC Clements. I think that's where it all started." He looks over to Lance- who has noticed the blank stare at him from the brunette woman.

"Lance! Is it Lance? Lance, can you give me a lift?" Not waiting for an answer, the Doctor sped away from them. With an annoyed eye roll from Charlotte and huff from Donna, they began chasing after him with Lance following after.

The four, with Lance taking up the rear and the Doctor leading, ran into the empty HC Clements and rushed into Donna's office. The Doctor darts to a big, white computer decorated for the holidays. "This might just be a locksmiths," he began as he worked with the computer. "But HC Clements was brought up twenty-three years ago by the Torchwood Institute."

"Who are they?" Asked Donna.

Looking to Donna as she stood by the entrance, Charlotte answered. "Behind the battle of Canary Wharf... Cyberman invasion. Skies over London filled with Daleks?"

Donna still held the blank silence for a moment. "Oh, I was in Spain."

Looking over from the computer, the Doctor says to her, "Cybermen were in Span."

"Scuba diving."

"That big picture, Donna. You keep on missing it." He kept talking on as he moved to another computer, which looked just slightly newer. "Torchwood was destroyed, but HC Clements stayed in business. I think someone else came in and took over the operation."

"But what do they want with me?"

Stepping away from the computer, he gave Donna his full attention. "Somehow you've been dosed with Huon energy. And that's a problem because Huon energy hasn't existed since the Dark Times. The only place you would find a Huon particle now is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS. See? That's what happened. Say, that's the TARDIS." He picked up a mug. "And that's you." He picked up a pencil. "The particles inside you activated. The two sets of particles magnetized and whap." He shook the pencil and mug, then dropped the pencil inside of the coffee mug. "You were pulled inside the TARDIS."

"I'm a pencil inside a mug?"

"Yes, you are. 4H. Sums you up." He sets the mug and the pencil back onto the desk while Donna stood there in shock. "Lance? What was HC Clements working on? Anything top secret? Special operations? Do not enter?" The Doctor sits down in front of the computer and Charlotte moves to look over his shoulder as he uses the sonic to immediately be sent to the page he was looking for.

"I don't know, I'm in charge of personnel. I wasn't project manager," Lance answered defensively, then raising his voice. "Why am I even explaining myself? What the hell are we talking about?"

A 3D floor plan of the building was displayed on the monitor in front of them. "They make keys, that's the point. And look at this... We're on the third floor."

When they wait for the lift to reach their level, the Doctor said, "Underneath reception, there's a basement, yes?" They go to where the lift entrance is, once it comes down Charlotte was the first inside with the Doctor next. The other two stood outside, not positive on going inside.

The Doctor looks at the elevator controls. "Then how come when you look on the lift, there's a button marked _'lower basement?'_ There's a whole floor which doesn't exist on the official plans. So what's down there, then?"

Lance looked to the Doctor as if the man were joking. "Are you telling me this building's got a secret floor?"

"We will _show _you if you get in the lift," responded Charlotte.

"It needs a key," Donna pointed out.

"I don't," the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver on the keyhole. _Bighead, _thought Charlotte.

"Right then," He started, putting the sonic in his inside his pocket and looking over to Lance and Donna. "Thanks, you two. We can handle this. See you later."

Charlotte gave the Doctor a stern glance. "No, _we can't," _She reminded him, looking to the two outside next. "Donna, in."

"No, we're good." The Doctor insisted.

Donna shook her head, knowing far better. "No chance I am leaving, Martian. You're the ones that keep saving my life. I ain't letting you out of my sight."

With his finger still on the button, the Doctor replied sarcastically, "Going down?"

"Lance?"

The man in question began pointing his body to the direction out. "Maybe I should go to the police..."

"Inside." Lance went into the lift at Donna's command.

"To honor and obey?" The Doctor jokes.

Without looking to where Donna stands on his right, Lance responded, "Tell me about it, mate."

"Oi!" Hollered Donna to him. Even if was partly because of Lance, Charlotte's face lit up from the chit chat- despite it only lasted a moment and hardly held anything special.

As Charlotte grew more anxious ever second, the ride to the lower basement felt slower than it really was. When they arrived at the lower basement corridor was lit an eerie green. "Where are we? Well, what goes on down here?" Donna wondered.

"Let's find out," the Doctor responded, just as curious as her.

"Do you think Mister Clements knows about this place?"

"The mysterious Mister Clements? I think he's part of it," The Doctor's eyes were caught onto something in the distant. "Oh, look. Transport." The other three look in his line of vision to spot four electric scooters parked side-by-side.

They began the trek on the scooters as serious as anyone else would riding one of them. Halfway through, after realizing how comical their serious faces were riding the scooters, Donna began bursting into laughter. The Doctor joined in, laughing with her as he rode the said scooter.

Charlotte smiled greatly, looking from the Doctor to Donna. Seeing Lance from Donna's other side, she noticed he had little to no smile. Soon, the group abandoned the scooters as they arrived at a bulkhead door labeled _Torchwood_, with a sign on it stating_ 'Authorised Personnel Only.'_

"Well, guess we can't get in."

The Doctor instead turned the wheel on the door to reveal a ladder. "Wait here. Just need to get my bearings. Don't do anything," To emphasize his point, he pointed his finger to the three of them as he rose his eyebrows.

"If you don't come back, Doctor, I swear-" Charlotte warned him as he started climbing the ladder.

He interrupted her, "I know, you would kill me." He continued climbing up, ignoring the huff of air sent from her.

"Donna... have you thought about this?" Lance looked over to Donna seriously after the Doctor began climbing. "Properly? I mean, this is serious! What the hell are we going to do?"

Thinking he was talking about the wedding she answered with, "Oh, I thought of July."

"July weddings are great," Charlotte joined in, remembering her parent's July wedding.

The Doctor went through a sealed cover, standing up there for a moment before climbing back down. "The Thames flood barrier right on top of us!" He said, jumping off from one of the last few bars. "Torchwood snuck in and built this place underneath."

Donna, not believing him, says sarcastically, "What, there's like secret base hidden underneath a major London landmark?"

"I know. Unheard of," replied the Doctor as he began leading them away from the door.

At the end of the corridor, they moved through double glass doors and into a massive laboratory- with long test tubes of water extending far past all of their heads and chemistry equipment. "Oh, look at this..." he compliments the room, looking to one of the pipes. "Stunning!"

"What does it do?" Asked Donna.

"Particle extrusion. Hold on..." He darts to one of the skinny, and tall bubbling tubes. As he looks through it, he tapped onto the glass. "Brilliant. They've been manufacturing Huon particles. Course, my people got rid of Huons. They unravel the atomic structure."

"Your people?" Lance interrogated him. "Who are they? What company do you represent?"

"Oh, I'm a freelancer," He left the tube and stood beside another closer to the three. "But this lot are rebuilding them. They've been using the river! Extruding them through a flat hydrogen base so they've got the end result, Huon particles in liquid form." He picks up a small test tube of Huon particles

"I don't get it, why would they want to make the particles in the first place?" Said Charlotte.

The Doctor shrugged. "They may not even realize it yet."

"And that's what's inside me?" Donna asked him, looking to the tube in his hand.

The Doctor turned the knob on top of the container he was holding, causing the liquid inside of it to glow gold. Charlotte notice Donna glows the same shade of gold as the particles. "Woah," Charlotte muttered under her breath.

Donna looked down at herself. "Oh, my God!"

"Genius. Because the particle is inert, they need something living to catalyze inside and that's you. Saturate the body and then. Ha!" The Doctor jumped backward as he began being filled with enthusiasm. "The wedding! Yes, you're getting married, that's it! Best day of your life, walking down the aisle. Oh, your body's a battleground! There's a chemical war inside! Adrenaline, acetylcholine."

Donna looks up to him, dumbfounded by how he seemed to be relishing in this. The other woman agreed with the redhead, while the Doctor meant well, he should've acted differently seeing how much distress they were in.

"Wham! Go the endorphins," He still continued. "Oh, your cooking! Yeah, you're like a walking oven. A pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away. The particles reach the boiling point. Shazam!"

Donna steps forward, slapping him across the face.

Pushed back, he looks to Donna slightly miffed. "What did I do this time?"

"Are you enjoying this?"

Relaxing, the Doctor didn't answer her. By the way his eyes cast down for a second, Charlotte knew he felt at least a little guilty.

Donna steps forward, breathing heavily. "Right, just tell me, these particles, are they dangerous? Am I safe?"

"Yes!" He exclaimed, unconvincingly.

"Doctor... if your lot got rid of Huon particles... why did they do that?"

He gulped before telling her as gently as he could, "Because they were deadly."

"Oh my God..."

"I'll sort it out, Donna. Whatever's been done to you, I'll reverse it. I am not about to lose someone else."

Crashes from above erupted, causing them to look up to where they came from. Charlotte moves to stand beside Donna, looking up along with them as a voice came on from the intercom, _"Oh, she is long since lost."_ The voice was female and caused Charlotte's heart to drop... she wasn't prepared for this at all.

The wall in front of them began rising up, revealing an enormous circular hole that she knew went all the way to the center of the Earth.

_"I have waited so long, hibernating at the edge of the universe..."_ says the Empress. The two brides and the Doctor were too distracted by her voice to notice Lance sneak away.

_"... Until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken!" _

Charlotte looks back to where Lance was standing previously, seeing no one there instead. Her jaw clenches as she became more frustrated. Looking forward, she makes out the armed robots in black robes pointing their guns to them from the balcony above.

The Doctor looks down into the hole. "Someone's been digging... Oh, very Torchwood. Drilled by laser. How far down does it go?" He asked the Empress.

"All the way to the center of the Earth," Charlotte answered instead, peering down into the hole beside him.

_"The other bride is intelligent."_

Charlotte didn't take the compliment. "Shut up," she muttered under her breath.

"Really?" The Doctor responded, looking over to her. "Seriously? What for?"

"Dinosaurs," Donna piped up.

He looks over to her, confused. "What?"

"Dinosaurs?" She repeated.

"What are you on about, dinosaurs?"

"That film, _Under the Earth_, with dinosaurs. Trying to help."

Charlotte shrugged. "Kind of close."

_"Such a sweet couple."_ The Empress mocked.

The Doctor looked up as if he were talking face-to-face with her. "Only a madman talks to thin air and trust me, you don't want to make me mad. Where are you?"

_"High in the sky. Floating so high on Christmas night."_

Charlotte was beginning to become as impatient with the Empress as the Doctor is. While she very much did _not _want to see the giant red spider (she can hardly bear the small ones, what makes her ready for the Empress? Her legs became jittery at the thought) she, however, still wanted to get it over with quickly.

The Doctor shouts up to the Empress, "I didn't come all this way to speak to the intercom! Come on, let's have a look at you!"

_"Who are you with such command?"_ She questioned him.

"I'm the Doctor,"

_"Prepare your best medicines, doctor-man, for you will be sick at heart."_

Out of thin air, the Empress teleported inside of the drilling area. Just looking at her made Charlotte wish the Doctor _did _prepare some of his best medicines. She was gigantic, maybe as big as a bus. The Empress was definitely taller than her childhood home, and was as red as an apple. Her stomach flipped over in disgust.

The Doctor looked up to her, shocked. "Racnoss... but that's impossible. You're one of the Racnoss?"

"_Empress _of the Racnoss," She corrected.

"If you're the Empress, where's the rest of the Racnoss?" He wondered, "Or... are you the only one?"

"Such a sharp mind." She complimented him.

"That's it, the last of your kind." He looked over to Donna. "The Racnoss come from the Dark Times, billions of years ago. Billions. They were carnivores, omnivores. They devoured whole planets."

"Racnoss are born starving," She defended easily. "Is that our fault?"

Donna looked disgusted as she asked the Doctor, "They eat people?"

"HC Clements did he wear those... those er, black and white shoes?" He asked her.

"He did. We used to laugh." Donna continued, "We used to call him the fat cat in spats." The Doctor drew their attention to a pair of feet with black and white shoes stick out from the gigantic spider web that went across a large part of the ceiling. "Oh, my God!" Exclaimed Donna as Charlotte's nose scrunched up.

The Empress cackles. "Mmm. My Christmas dinner."

"You shouldn't even exist!" Asserted the Doctor. "Way back in history, the fledgling Empires went to war against the Racnoss they were wiped out." Lance entered on the balcony above the Empress. When Donna and Charlotte spotted him, the latter unpleased, he motions for them to be quiet.

"Except for me."

To distract the spider, Donna began speaking. "But that's what I've got inside me, that Huon energy thing. Oi! Look at me, lady, I'm talking. Where do I fit in? How come I get all stacked up with these Huon particles? Look at me, you! Look me in the eye and tell me." Donna demanded the Empress.

"This bride is so feisty." Lance then began sneaking behind her with a fire ax.

"Yes, I am!" Donna tried to distract the spider more. Knowing what was soon going to happen, Charlotte stood beside her. "And I don't know what you are, you big thing, but a spider's just a spider and an ax is an ax! Now, do it!"

Lance started to swing the ax towards the Racnoss. The Empress turns and hisses at him, dropping the ax, Lance started to laugh along with her. "That was a good one," He said. "Your face."

The Empress looked down at them. "Lance is funny."

"What?" Donna responded quietly.

"Donna," Charlotte put one of her pale hands on Donna's shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Donna looked back at Lance. "Lance, don't be so stupid! Get her!"

"God, she's thick," He insulted the still very confused woman. "Months I've had to put up with her. Months. A woman who can't even point to Germany on a map."

Still not comprehending it, she said, "I don't understand."

Charlotte focused on her. "Donna, how did you meet him?"

"In the office."

She continued, "He made you coffee, didn't he?" Glancing to the Doctor, Charlotte could tell he understood what happened.

"What?"

Lance interjected as if he were explaining something to a child. "Every day, I made you coffee."

The Doctor added on, "You had to be dosed with liquid particles over six months."

Donna, much to her disappointment, connected the dots. "He was poisoning me."

"Yeah, he did." Charlotte nodded her head solemnly.

"It was all there in the job title." Said the Doctor, _"'The Head of Human Resources.'"_

"This time, it's personnel." Lance corrected, laughing with the Empress.

"But... we were getting married."

"Well, I couldn't risk you running off!" He said as if it were obvious. "I had to say yes. And then I was stuck with a woman who thinks the height of excitement is a new flavor _Pringle_. Oh, I had to sit there and listen to all that yap yap yap. _'Oh, Brad and Angelina.' 'Is Posh pregnant?'_ X-Factor, Atkins Diet, Feng Shui, split ends, text me, text me, text me. Dear God, the never-ending fountain of fat, stupid trivia."

Donna looked up to him with her face contorted into a painting of increasing hurt and confusion.

"I deserve a medal," He finished.

Finally allowed to show how she felt towards him, without spoiling anything, Charlotte pointing an angry finger to the man as her face turned into pure rage. "How _dare _you!" She snapped. "Is _this _what the Empress offered you? What even are you? Her henchmen? Her puppet?"

"It's better than a night with her," He still said calmly.

"But I love you," Donna begged.

"That's what made it easy." He answered her, repulsively. "It's like you said, Doctor. The big picture. What's the point of it all if the human race is nothing? That's what the Empress can give me. The chance to... go out there. To see it. The size of it all. I think you understand that, don't you, Doctor?"

"Who is this little physician and the other bride?" The Empress asked Lance.

"She said he's a Martian," he told her. "She's human."

"Oh, we're sort of... homeless," The Doctor corrected them. "But the point is, what's down here? The Racnoss are extinct. What's going to help you four thousand miles down? That's just the molten core of the Earth, isn't it?"

Lance looked over to the Racnoss. "I think he wants us to talk."

"I think so, too." The Empress responded to her henchman.

"Well, tough!" Lance huffed. "All we need is Donna."

The Empress looked to the robot mercenaries. "Kill this chattering little doctor man and his friend!" She ordered.

The redhead immediately stands in front of the Doctor and Charlotte. "Don't you hurt them!" Donna yelled at the Racnoss.

"No, no, Donna. It's all right." The Doctor reassured her. "We'll be fine."

Frightened, she didn't move an inch as she stared up to Lance and the Empress. "No, I won't let them!"

"At arms!" The Empress called out, with all of the robots pointing their guns towards the trio.

"Ah, now." The Doctor said but was ignored by the Empress. "Except."

She continued to command the robots. "Take aim!" She ordered.

"Well, I just want to point out the obvious..."

"They won't hit the bride," The Empress assured them. "They're such very good shots."

"Just- just- just- just... just hold on," Says the Doctor. "Hold on just a tick. Just a tiny little... just a little tick. If you think about it, the particles activated in Donna and drew her inside my spaceship. So reverse it... and the spaceship comes to her." He turned the knob on the container of Huon particles he still held.


	4. first day III

_**Around the three, the TARDIS built herself with them inside. **_The Doctor immediately runs up to the console, beginning to dematerialize the ship. "Off we go," he says. Just before they left, however, Charlotte hears bullet after bullet being shot to the spaceship. Luckily for them, the TARDIS is impervious to them.

"Oh, do you know what I said before about time machines?" The Doctor reminded Donna, "Well, I lied. And now we're going to use it."

The TARDIS spun around through the time vortex, but this time neither Donna nor Charlotte was afraid as they held on.

"We need to find out what the Empress of the Racnoss is digging up If something's buried at the planet's core, it must've been there since the beginning. That's just brilliant. Molto Bene! I've always wanted to see this. Charlotte, Donna, we're going further back than I've ever been before." The Doctor looks over to Donna- seeing her shudder as she shed silent tears in the jumpseat.

It was an unnaturally calm ride in the TARDIS- no sharp turns and no crazy twists. Soon the trip stopped and the Doctor looked over to Charlotte and Donna from in front of the console. "We've arrived," he announced. "Want to see?"

Charlotte nodded. "Yeah."

He looked to Donna at the jumpseat. "I suppose," she said, unenthusiastically as she wiped away the last few of her tears.

Looking at the scanner, he pushed it away. "Oh, that scanner's a bit small. Maybe your way's best." With Charlotte following behind him, the Doctor walked up to the entrance. Donna was still sitting on the seat in deep thought. "Come on," he said as they waited. She stands up from the seat and walks up to them slowly.

"No human's ever seen this," He told her. "You'll be the first."

"Yeah, I'll even close my eyes so you can be," Charlotte told her seriously.

Donna looked up to them when she reaches the closed doors. "All I want to see is my bed."

"Donna Noble, Charlotte Bolton, welcome to the creation of the Earth." He opened the doors to show lumps of rocks floating around and colorful gas clouds. Through the dust clouds, they could see the light from a much younger sun.

"We've gone back four point six billion years," He told them, their eyes glued to the rocks floating around. "There's no solar system, not yet. Only dust and rocks and gas. That's the Sun, over there," He points to it. "Brand new. Just beginning to burn."

Charlotte looked into it too with an amazed sparkle in her eyes. "It's just so... _weird. _We always have an idea of what the solar system looked like before, but we actually get to _see_ it." She looked at him, then back out into what will become the Earth. "And it's magnificent."

"Where's the Earth?" Asked Donna.

"All around us... in the dust," He told her.

"Puts the wedding in perspective," Donna mumbled, looking to the large area of dust and rocks. "Lance was right. We're just tiny."

"No, but that's what you do. The human race makes sense out of chaos. Marking it out with weddings and Christmas and calendars. This whole process is beautiful, but only if it's being observed."

Donna continued to look at the empty space that would become her earth. "So I came out of all this?"

"This and that," Charlotte responded. "It's amazing."

A large rock drifts past the TARDIS. Nodding to it, Donna remarks, "I think that the Isle of Wight." At that, they all laughed a little.

"Soon, gravity will take hold," Charlotte began, recalling something she learned years ago. "One big rock, much heavier than the others, starts to pull other rocks to it. All the dust, gas, and elements will be pulled in. Everything forming together until you get-"

"The Earth." Donna finished. "How'd you know that?"

Charlotte thought a second, trying to remember herself. "Oh, my fiancee majored in astrophysics during university. Used to have me quiz him."

"But the question is, what was the first rock?" The Doctor inquired, interrupting her.

A Racnoss ship, a seven-pointed star, flys through of one of the gas clouds on the right toward the rocks and gas. "Look," Donna pointed.

"The Racnoss," the Doctor wasn't surprised as he looked to the ship.

Charlotte's breathing hitches. "The first rock isn't even a rock at all."

He ran back to the console, pressing one of the buttons repeatedly as he said to them, "Hold on, the Racnoss are hiding from the war. What's it doing?" The process was speeding up as the ship began to be swarmed by the rocks.

"Exactly what you said," Donna answered for him.

He ran back to the door to see, looking over Charlotte's shoulder. "Oh, they didn't just bury something at the center of the Earth. They _became_ the center of the Earth."

There was a loud bang that shook the TARDIS- nearly causing the three to fall. Charlotte immediately closed the doors as she shouted, "What was that?"

"Trouble," responded the Doctor. He ran back to the console, promptly trying to stop whatever was happening to the TARDIS.

Donna and Charlotte held on tightly as the TARDIS began shuddering and tipping around- struggling to even keep their balance. "What the hell's it doing?" Donna yelled at him.

"Remember that little trick of mine, particles pulling particles. Well, it works in reverse," He revealed, much to Donna's horror. "They're pulling us back!" Although he strove to control the TARDIS, he was helpless as the pull from them was too strong.

"Well, can't you stop it? Hasn't it got a handbrake? Can't you reverse or warp or beam or something?"

Even Charlotte, who knew well he couldn't do anything, shouted over the noise, "There has to be _some_ sort of control, right?"

"Backseat driver," He muttered to himself. "Oh! Wait a minute," He pulled a device that looked similar to a surfboard with a button out from under the console. "The extrapolator! It can't stop us, but it should give us a good bump!" He lifted the device on top of the console. As soon as the TARDIS materialized again, he shouted, "Now!" Then pushed the big blue button that was on it, causing the ship to dematerialize once again.

Leaving the TARDIS, Charlotte quickly knew that they were in the lower basement corridor. "We're about two hundred yards to the right," said the Doctor. "Come on!" The trio then began to run through the corridor with the Doctor's lead.

"But what do we do?" Donna asked as they stopped at the door leading to the Thames Flood Barrier.

The Doctor listened behind the door with a stethoscope. "I don't know! I make it up as I go along. But trust me, I've got a history. Just ask her." He nodded his head to Charlotte.

"But I still don't understand," Donna tells him. "I'm full of particles, but what for?"

"There's a Racnoss web at the center of the Earth, but my people unraveled their power source. The Huon particles ceased to exist but the Racnoss was stuck."

Even though she knew it was going to happen then, Charlotte stands with her back to Donna as one robot grabbed her from behind- covering her mouth and dragging her away. The Doctor didn't even notice as he continued talking.

"They've just taken hibernation for billions of years. Frozen. Dead. Kaput! So you're the new key. Brand new particles, living particles! They need you to open it... and you have never been so quiet." He looks back to where Donna stood. "Where did she go?" He asked Charlotte.

"We'll see."

He sonics the door open to see a robot pointing a gun to them. "Oh!"

The Doctor pulled out the remote control for the robots from earlier out of his pocket, easily defeating the robot. Taking the cloak and mask off the sleeping robot, and put it on over his clothes.

"Really?"

"Just stay behind me," He replied.

After coming across one more robot, defeating them again, Charlotte took the robes from it to disguise herself. They arrived in the chamber just in time to hear the Empress say, "My children are climbing towards me and none shall stop them." Pausing, she looked up to the disguised Doctor and Charlotte. "So, you might as well unmask, my clever little doctor-man and the other bride."

Charlotte's cloak fell to the floor as she took off the robot head- dropping it to the ground, the head rolled to the side like a bowling ball. The Doctor as well took off his disguise quickly.

"Oh well. Nice try. I've got you, Donna!" He pointed his sonic screwdriver to her, making the webs surrounding her give away.

"I'm gonna fall!" She shrieked.

"You're going to swing! I've got you!" He assured her, with his arms outstretched.

Screaming, Donna swung across the laser made hole and got past the Empress. However, with the web's strand being too long, it stopped underneath the landing where the Doctor and Charlotte stood. Donna dropped to the ground with a loud clang.

"... Oh, sorry," the Doctor apologized to her.

Looking down, both Charlotte and him see her sprawled out on the ground. "Thanks for nothing."

With a smirk, the Empress said, "The doctor-man amuses me."

"Empress of the Racnoss," he addressed her. "I give you one last chance. I can find you a planet. I can find you and your children a place in the universe to co-exist. Take that offer and end this now."

Remembering what would happen if she declined, Charlotte pled to the spider- the same one that made her legs feel like jelly. "Please! Just say yes!"

She laughs. "These apes are so funny!"

"What's your answer?" The Doctor pushed, his eyes set on her as she gave a long pause.

Charlotte's hair stood up on the back of her neck as the Empress locked eyes on them. "Oh, I'm afraid I have to decline," She said with a terrifying smile.

"What happens next is your own doing," He warned her.

"I'll show you what happens next," She hisses. "At arms!" The robots rose their guns. "Take aim!" They aimed. "And-"

It was such a simple thing to say, to power off an army. All he did was say, "Relax" and the roboforms slumped down in their stance.

"What did you do?" Donna yelled up to him.

Looking down to her he replied with, "Guess what I've got, Donna?" He pulled the controller out from his pocket. "Pockets."

"How did that fit in there?"

"They're bigger on the inside." Charlotte got a smile from that as he made a face down at Donna.

"Roboforms are not necessary," the Empress said easily. "My children may feast on Martian flesh."

The Doctor remained cool as Charlotte looks to and from him and the Empress. "Oh, but I'm not from Mars."

"Then where?"

"My home planet is far away and long since gone. But its name lives on. Gallifrey."

You could've seen the exact moment the Empress turned full rage. "They murdered the Racnoss!" She seethed.

"I warned you," he told her, with his eyes held onto her. "You did this." He takes out a handful of the Christmas baubles.

Charlotte's mouth was wide open in shock as the Doctor began to use the baubles- throwing them into the air, controlling them to smash into the walls of the corridor- then allowing the Thames to rush into the chamber. She saw this on the TV, and she would be stupid to be surprised it would happen... now, though, it was so much different.

It wasn't a plot, it was her life now.

Another bauble explodes near the Empress' feet- causing a fire to erupt there. Even Charlotte, who hated spiders to a high degree, couldn't watch as the Empress wailed when fire floods down into the hole... So, she looked away with heavy eyes. As the Thames soaks the trio and fire surrounded them, the Doctor stood motionless beside Charlotte.

The Empress yelled out for her children, grief-stricken, as the Thames drowned them all, "No! No! My children! No! My children! My children!"

The Doctor, still not without an inch of motion, just watched the sight in silence. With her dark-brown, soaking hair falling against her face, Charlotte pulled on the crook of his elbow. Forcing him to face her, she looked up to his blank face wrathfully.

He terrified her with that blank stare. It looked through her like a window, as if she weren't really there. "You done yet, Doctor?!" She fumed over the noise of rushing water and the consuming flames.

After a moment of no reaction, the Doctor seemed to be snapped from his trance. He slipped the controller back inside his pocket. "Come on!" He shouted back down to Donna and to Charlotte. "Time I got you two out."

Soaked to the skin, they all left heading up the stairs. Running through the corridor again, the Doctor led them to the door leading up to the Thames Flood Barrier. Below Donna, Charlotte hears her call down to the Doctor, "But what about the Empress?"

"She used up all her Huon energy!" He responded. "She's defenseless!"

"Shame, just starting to like her," Charlotte muttered to herself sarcastically.

Reaching the top, all around her Charlotte could see the empty Thames. She couldn't help but laugh a little at the sight. Who would've thought she'd drain the Thames today?

Beside her, Donna was looking around too, as the Doctor was just about finished climbing the ladder, Donna said to him, "Just... there's one problem."

"What is it?"

"We've drained the Thames," Donna told him as he stands up beside them, laughing with them. "Check that off your bucket list, then."

The Doctor parked the TARDIS across Donna's home, in the center of a normal neighborhood, successfully. He closed the doors as they stepped outside. "There we go. I told you she'd be all right. She can survive anything," he told them, giving the TARDIS a pat on the side.

"More than I've ever done," Admitted Donna.

The Doctor gave her a quick scan with his screwdriver. "Nope! All the Huon particles have gone. No damage, you're fine."

She gave a small nod, her eyes downcast. "Yeah, apart from that... I missed my wedding, lost my job and became a widow on the same day. Sort of."

"I'm sorry," Charlotte apologized to her. "I- _We," _She corrected, pointing from the Doctor and then to herself. "Couldn't save him."

"He deserved it," she paused as the Doctor rose an eyebrow to her. Her face softened. "No, he didn't."

"At least you got them, eh?" Charlotte says to her, looking through a window and saw Sylvia and Geoff hug. "You should get inside, they're probably been worried."

"I know." She replied. "Do you have a family?"

"Yeah... adoptive, but that doesn't matter."

"Best Christmas present they could have." The Doctor told Donna, placing a hand onto Charlotte's shoulder. "Oh, no. I forgot you hate Christmas."

"Yes, I do."

"Even if it snows?" He questioned. Tweaking a camouflaged switch on the TARDIS's exterior, the lamp on the top glows yellow- sending a bolt of energy into the night sky, a sudden snow shower appearing.

Donna looked up, watching the snowfall with a grin. "I can't believe you did that!"

"Oh, basic atmospheric excitation." He smiled back at her.

Charlotte rolled her eyes. _"Very_ basic," She mocked with a grin back to him.

"Merry Christmas," Donna told him and Charlotte

"And you," he replied. "So... what will you do with yourself now?"

"Not getting married for starters," She began, causing the corners of Charlotte's smile to widen. "And I'm not going to temp anymore. I don't know... travel, see a bit more of planet Earth... walk in the dust. Just go out there and do something."

"Well, you could always..." the Doctor began, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"What?"

"... Come with us." He asked.

She smiles at the request. "No."

"Okay," he replied quickly.

"I can't."

Pretending to not be bothered, he says, "No, that's fine."

"No, but really... Everything we did today... Do you live your life like that?"

He shook his head. "It's not just me, Charlotte jumps around my timeline. New her every time. But stuff like today isn't _all_ the time."

"I think you do," She told him. "And I couldn't."

"But you've seen it out there. It's beautiful."

She nods, agreeing with him. "And it's terrible. That place was flooding and burning and they were dying, and you were stood there like... I don't know... a stranger. And then you made it snow. I mean, you scare me to death!"

After a moment of silence, the Doctor said, "...Right."

"Tell you what I will do, though. Christmas dinner." As he didn't look too ecstatic, she tilted her head. "Oh, come on!"

"I don't do that sort of thing."

"You did it last year. You said so. And you might as well because Mum always cooks enough for twenty." Charlotte wore a half-smile at that, she hasn't eaten anything since the morning all the way back in her home universe.

"Oh, all right then. But you go first. Better warn them. And... don't say I'm Martian," Motioning to the TARDIS, he says to her, "I just have to park her properly. She might drift off to the Middle Ages," He looked over to the brunette. "Charlotte, I need your help with parking too. I'll see you in a minute," He lied to Donna.

Charlotte looked up to him, eyebrows raised. "Actually, Doctor, I think you can park her yourself."

"But, I need your_ help."_ He pushed.

She remained unmoved. "You can do it yourself."

"Alright, see you in a minute." The Doctor went into the TARDIS, he started the engines up and left with the TARDIS for a second. Donna and Charlotte didn't even move an inch away.

"Doctor! Doctor!" Donna shouted. Then, almost immediately, the TARDIS rematerialized in front of them.

The Doctor popped his head out from the TARDIS. "Blimey, you can shout."

"Am I ever going to see you again?"

He shrugged with a half-smile. "If I'm lucky."

"Just promise me one thing... Find someone."

"I don't need anyone else, I have Charlotte."

Charlotte stood forward, looking to him from her spot. "What about when I'm not there?" He gave no answer.

"Yes, you still do. Because sometimes, I think you need someone to stop you when she can't."

"Yeah," He paused, looking out from the TARDIS. "Thank you, Donna." He smiled in her direction, "And just... be magnificent."

Laughing quietly, Donna smiled back at him. "I think I will yeah."

The Doctor turned to Charlotte, a sparkle in his eyes showing up that wasn't there for the other woman. "I know this is weird, but I swear you'll get the hang of it soon."

Charlotte nodded with a smile back. "Yeah..." _How could I 'get the hang of it?' _She wondered.

The Doctor goes back into the Police Box, closing the door behind him when Donna called for him again. "Doctor?"

Opening the door, he faked exasperation. "Oh, what is it now?"

"That friend of yours... What was her name?"

With a lump in his throat, he answered Donna. "Her name was Rose." The trio was silent for a second longer. Then the Doctor returned inside of his blue box leaving Donna and Charlotte on 2007's Christmas day. Looking up with amazed faces, they watched as the box shot up into the night sky.

"Well, time for dinner," Said Donna, leading Charlotte up to the front door.

Donna knocked on the door. Charlotte could hear the footsteps of someone running towards it. She was so close to seeing who they were, but when the door creaked open, she disappeared into thin air just as she did in the middle of the aisle.

A/N: First adventure down in the books! Thinking on doing an Eleventh episode next, don't know when it'll be up yet.

edit: ugh just looked over this chapter and saw its 9k words so i'll have to split it up and re-number all the chapters. ack


	5. le krafayis en france

**_When she reappeared, Charlotte found herself in an odd predicament. _**The brunette, even with no candles lit at such a late time, could tell she was in a bedroom. Her eyes drift to the bed, where she notices an outline of a man sits up looking straight to her. Charlotte immediately recognized him as Vincent van Gogh- meaning she had to be in that one episode. In embarrassment, she found herself unable to move.

He looked to the woman in a strange woman in the white dress confused. "What are you doing?" Vincent questioned her, alerted by her presence.

She gulps as she stuttered out. "... I was... just leaving." She lied, heading to the door right after. Pulling open the door, Charlotte hears Vincent fall back onto his bed. Trying to not bother the artist any more than she already has, she closed the door as silently as she could.

Looking over the balcony outside Vincent's bedroom, she discovered it wasn't as late as she thought- probably around late dinner time. _Where do I go now? _she thought. In response, her stomach did a long, loud grumble.

After asking a young couple the directions to the closest café- which, luckily for her, was not that long of a walk to, Charlotte began the trek there with stares being thrown to her odd dress by passersby. Reaching it, she immediately recognized the café from both _Doctor Who _and Van Gogh's famous painting- with an orange light hanging above the terrace as the last few customers finished their food at a table outside.

Hoisting up her dress, Charlotte walks into the café soon after arriving. After she sits alone at a table set up beside the wall, a waiter came up to her- wearing a nice, black Victorian coat. "Is there anything I could get you off the menu?" With a tight smile, he looks down at her.

Noticing her lack of money too late, Charlotte shook her head. "No thank you," She answered politely. "I'm waiting for some friends."

The waiter walks off to the kitchen, passing in front of a rowdy group of men as they walked out of the café with mad chatter. Charlotte's eyes were directed to that same group when they passed through the door... revealing Vincent standing at the door, looking over to Charlotte in shocked confusion.

He rushed over to the table once seeing her, setting a well-loved satchel and a rolled-up painting on the chair next to him. "What are you doing here?" He confronted her, sitting in the chair across Charlotte.

Sitting up, she straightens her back. "... Waiting for some friends," the brunette answered him slowly. "What are _you_ doing?"

"I couldn't fall back to sleep after you broke into my home."

Charlotte gave him an awkward smile as she shook her head. "Sorry about that... I didn't mean to."

As she notices the waiter approaches the table again, Vincent replied with, "I'd only see a problem if there was something of value in there."

The waiter, recognizing the artist from times before, sent him a sharp eye. "I hope you're willing to pay this time."

Vincent pats his satchel, showing that he had something to pay with. "I always end up paying. Don't I, Maurice?"

Maurice looks down at the bearded man skeptically. "Fine," he huffed but points a finger to him. "If you don't pay this time, I will have no choice but to kick you out again."

With a grateful smile, Vincent then ordered a glass of wine for himself. Turning back around, Maurice left with a slump in his step.

As soon as Maurice leaves, he turned to Charlotte. "You've never said your name."

_This can't affect anything in the future, right? _She breathed in tightly. "Charlotte Mary Bolton," the woman answered just as she had many times before.

"Vincent van Gogh."

The two sat in awkward silence with the loud background noise of a group of rowdy friends behind them and the crackle of a fireplace. "So... how has your day been?" Charlotte asked, breaking the silence.

Thinking back to only ten minutes ago, when she appeared in his bedroom, he responded with, "Something."

The waiter came back with his drink, placing it in front of Vincent before attending to the family who's just sat down at a table in the front.

As Vincent takes his first sip in the drink, Charlotte looks to him from across the table in silence. He set the glass back down. "What occasion is that dress for?" He asked her.

Charlotte, being confused for a moment, took a second to answer. "Oh, a wedding." Noticing a confused look sent from him from not recognizing a wedding dress like her's, she added, "Our families are very informal."

He nodded. "Then why aren't you with him? It is your wedding night, after all."

Charlotte looks to her hands, trying to find the right words as she began fiddling with her thumbs. "I... ran away."

His eyes widened in surprise as he took his second sip. "Did you?"

In reply, Charlotte nodded silently. Noticing how she began to grow distant, starring off in deep thought, Vincent unrolls the painting- an unfinished _"La Méridienne." _Glimpsing to it, Charlotte spies out the two people laying on a semi-finished heap of hay but the background was hardly even started.

The woman recoiled as Vincent set his glass on top of the painting without a second thought. "Nice painting you got there," She complimented.

From the piece of art, Vincent looked up to her as if she were lying. "No need to lie. It's not very good, but it was the best I could do." He took the final sip of his drink, setting it to the side as he began to roll up the painting, not wanting to work on it anymore. Vincent leaned it against the wall.

Charlotte made an 'O' shape with her mouth. At first, she was confused about why he didn't take her compliment... then, she remembered how awful people have been about his art. "No, no. It really is good," She reassured him.

Before Vincent had the chance to respond to her, the waiter came up to their table with another tight smile. "Are you ready to pay?"

Vincent shook his head up and down. "Yes, I am," He responded, reaching into his satchel to reveal a self-portrait of himself in a straw hat. Looking up to the unamused waiter, he shows the painting. "Eh?"

With a sigh, Maurice looks over to Charlotte desperately. "Can you pay?"

"Sorry," Charlotte apologized to both Vincent and him. "I have no money."

Maurice snatched the painting from Vincent's hands, trying to see if it were worth anything before he gave a deep exhale and looked back to them commandingly. "Up! Both of you- Out!"

Standing up, the two were then beginning to be ushered out of the café. With hardly enough time to grab the rolled up _"La Méridienne" _or his satchel, they were left sitting at their table. "Come on! Come on!" Vincent begged as they were pushed on the patio.

Charlotte, immediately glancing to her right when she stepped out onto the patio, spots the Doctor. This time, in his Eleventh regeneration, he wore his signature tweed jacket and blue bowtie sat down at a cleaned off table alone. Her dark eyes met his hazel ones for her first time and for his thousandth.

Eyes widening at the sudden eye contact, she looks to her left... only to be met with a redhead much taller than she standing in front of the café. Amy covered her giddy smile with a museum pamphlet as she looked to Vincent while he argued with Maurice.

"One painting for one drink," Vincent told him. "That's not a bad deal."

He promptly fired back with, "It wouldn't be a bad deal if the painting were any good. I can't hang that up on my walls. It'd scare the customers half to death," He held the painting beside Vincent's face. "It's bad enough having you in here in person, let alone looming over the customers day and night in a stupid hat. You pay money or you get out." Maurice then lowered the painting.

Still sitting at the table cross-legged, the Doctor piped up. "I'll pay if you like."

The waiter looks to the Doctor surprised. "What?"

"Well, if you like, I'll pay for the drink," He re-explained. "Or I'll pay for the painting and you can use the money to pay for the drink."

The artist also looks to the Doctor, as if he were insulted. "Exactly who are you?"

"Oh, I'm new in town."

"Well, in that case, you don't know three things. One, I pay for my own drinks, thank you." The people familiar with his habit chuckled. "Two, no one ever buys any of my paintings or they would be laughed out of town. So if you want to stay in town, I suggest you keep your cash to yourself. And three, your friend's cute." He nodded back to where Amy stands. "But you should keep your big nose out of other people's business." Vincent turns back to the waiter as soon as he finished. "Come on, just one more drink. I'll pay tomorrow."

"No." Maurice denied it easily.

"Or, on the other hand, slightly more compassionately, yes?"

"Or, on the other hand, to protect my business from madmen, no."

Vincent rose his eyebrows. "Or-"

Crossing her hands over her chest, Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Oh my Lord," She whispered under her breath.

"Oh look, just shut up, the pair of you!" Amy commanded them both, walking up to Maurice and Vincent. "I would like a bottle of wine, please," she told the waiter, "Which I will then share with whomever I choose." She looks to the red-bearded man with a smile.

"That could be good." Agreed Vincent.

Nodding his head, Maurice approved it. "That's good by me."

"Good," said Amy, heading inside the café. Maurice left next, pushing the self-portrait onto Vincent's chest as he left. Vincent holds onto it, looking down at the painting of himself as he does. Charlotte glimpses at the artist before following Amy inside, pointing her to where she previously sat.

The four now sat in the dimly lit restaurant- the Doctor with Charlotte to his left and the two redheads sitting across from them. With his arms resting on the table, the Doctor looks over to Charlotte.

"Oh, Charlotte," He began, catching her attention. "I have something for you." The Doctor dug his hand into his jacket's inner pocket.

Charlotte watched him in curiosity. "What is it?"

"One second- oh, there we go." The Doctor pulls a plastic-wrapped sandwich, handing it to her.

Charlotte looks down at it oddly, then back up to him. Hesitatingly, Charlotte takes it from his hands.

"Lettuce, onion, ham, and cheese," he listed as if it were ingrained in his memory.

Charlotte looks to him with her jaw hanging down. "You forgot mayo."

"You stop liking it later," He revealed much to her surprise. She has loved mayo for as long as she could remember- putting it on her chips and (at a point) macaroni.

She gave a tight smile, still grateful he even got that far. "Thank you," She whispered to him, unwrapping the plastic and immediately started engulfing herself with it.

"That accent of yours," Vincent began, looking to Amy. "You from Holland like me?"

Swallowing her bite of sandwich, Charlotte, along with the Doctor, answered with a 'Yes.' At the same time, Amy countered with a 'No.'

"She means yes." The Doctor clarified. "So, start again. Hello, I'm the Doctor." He held a hand out to him.

Vincent groans loudly. "I knew it!"

The Doctor pulled back his hand. "Sorry?"

Much less trusting, Vincent looks across the table to him. "My brother's always sending doctors, but you won't be able to help."

Holding just half the sandwich now, Charlotte shakes her head. "Not that sort of doctor," she assured him, pointing to _'La Méridienne' _as he unrolls it again. To the Doctor and Amy, she said, "Isn't that a great painting?"

"That's incredible," The Doctor added in agreement. "Don't you think, Amy?"

"Absolutely. One of my favorites."

"One of my favorite _whats?"_ Asked Vincent, rolling up the piece of art again. "You've never seen my work before."

Amy's green eyes widen, noticing her mistake. "Ah yes. One of my favorite paintings that I've ever seen. Generally."

"Then you can't have seen many paintings, then." Vincent sets the painting back to the side. "I know it's terrible. It's the best I can do." Vincent paused, looking to Amy. "Your hair's orange."

She leans forward, looking into the artist's eyes as she held up a glass. "Yes. So's yours," She said, taking a sip of her drink.

"Yes," Says Vincent as he leans in her direction as well. "It was more orange, but now is, of course, less."

Swallowing the last bite of her sandwich, Charlotte looks to the Doctor with a small smile. "Don't get jealous," she muttered to him.

With a roll of his eyes, the Doctor interrupts the two. "So... Vincent, paint any churches recently?" He asked, him and Charlotte noticing them leaning away from each other. The Doctor continued, "Any churchy plans? Any churches, chapels, religiousy stuff like that, something you'd like to get into? You know, fairly soon?"

"Well, there is one church I'm thinking of painting when the weather is right."

He nodded his head slightly. "That is very good news."

Charlotte turns her head, watching as an older woman runs in screaming in terror. "She's been murdered!" The woman shouted in horror. "Help me!"

The brunette's heart dropped as time seemed to slow down. "Oh no," She whispered under her breath.

"That, on the other hand, isn't quite such great news," the Doctor commented, standing up from his seat. "Come on, Charlotte, Amy, Vincent!" On that note, Amy and Charlotte run behind him with Vincent staying behind to take his final sip of the wine before following after them.

"She's been ripped to shreds!" One man yelled when the four reached the murder scene of a young woman laying on the cobblestone, unmoving.

The Doctor tries to push past the crowd of locals to see, "Please, let me look. I'm a doctor."

"Who is it?" A woman asked.

Charlotte looks past the Doctor when he gets to the front of the crowd, seeing the body of a young woman no older than she laying on the ground. "Oh, no, no, no," the Doctor, crouching in front of her, faltered.

"Is she dead?" A man in the back wondered out loud.

A short, older lady pushes her way through. It was the mother. "Away, all of you vultures! This is my daughter." She bends down to caress her daughter. "Giselle. What monster could have done this?" The mother looks to the Doctor, who still was crouched beside Giselle. "Get away from her!"

"Okay, okay." The Doctor complied, standing up beside the three others with his hands up.

"Get that madman out of here!" The mother yells her order, throwing the first rock at Vincent, however, it didn't even reach him. Quickly, the crowd followed behind her... pelting rocks at the four until they began running away.

The mother continued to throw pebbles as she rested her daughter's head on her lap. "You bring this on us. Your madness! You!"

"He's to blame!" Another claimed.

Running away through the alleyway, they stopped once they reached a safe distance away. Charlotte, along with Vincent and Amy, panted.

The Doctor finishes running a moment after them. Putting his hands on his knees, he caught his breath as well. "Are you all right?" He asked Vincent, who stood beside him.

Vincent shook his head. "Yes, I'm used to it."

"What about you, Charlotte?"

"Oh, I'm fine," replied the brunette, getting her breathing on rhythm. "Has a murder like this happen before, Vincent?"

The painter thought for a second before answering. "Only a week ago. It's a terrible time."

"As I thought, as I thought," the Doctor mused. "Come on, we'd better get you home."

Just when he is about to pass Vincent, the painter asked him, "Where are you staying tonight?"

He stopped in his step, looking to the orange-haired man with a smile. "Oh, you're very kind," He says, giving him a pat on the shoulder. The Doctor moves forward. Charlotte rolls her eyes at him then follows soon after. Amy, looking to Vincent, laughs and leaves as the artist throws on his straw hat.

Charlotte quickly fell in step with the Doctor on their way to Vincent's place. "I don't think that's what he was saying," She told him as they walked behind Vincent and Amy.

The Doctor looks down to her pleased with himself as if he found something out before her. "That's because he was implying it, of course."

Charlotte rose her eyebrows at him but chose to say nothing in response.

Soon, she was pushed to the back of the group as Vincent began leading them through a thin alleyway. To her right was the wall surrounding the neighboring home of Vincent's. Following him, they turn right onto a cobblestone pathway.

"Dark night," commented the Doctor. "Very starry..."

Vincent stops at the doorway of his cottage. "It's not much. I live on my own. But you should be okay for one night." He looks directly at the Doctor as the three caught up. "_One night." _The painter then lights a candle hanging on one side of the door.

"We're going to stay with him?" Amy whispers to the Doctor and Charlotte.

Charlotte shrugged, whispering back to her, "Until he paints the church."

"Watch out for that," Vincent warned as they reached the front door. "That one's wet." Next to the doorway hung _'A Bedroom in Arles' _while it dries.

Unlike the Doctor and Vincent, Amy and Charlotte take a second to look at the painting in amazement. A moment later, she nudged Amy, motioning that they should head inside of the cottage.

Entering the home, the first thing they all noticed in the entryway was the many paintings covering the walls. Some Charlotte could name, others she recognized, and few she's seeing for the first time. It was like its own small museum.

At the other end of the cottage's living area, Vincent lit a candle. "Sorry about the clutter," he apologized, shaking the unlit match.

"Some clutter," the Doctor mumbled.

"I've come to accept the only person who's going to love my paintings is me."

Charlotte, standing in the far left corner of the room, looked at _'Starry Night' _when the Doctor went to stand next to her. The woman glanced over to him for a second before looking back to the painting of swirling blues and stars.

Looking down at her, he asked, "This is only your second adventure, right?"

"Yeah," She responded. "Is that alright?"

"Oh, definitely," the Doctor says without a thought. Glimpsing to her, he looks to the slightly dirty wedding dress. "You're still wearing the dress."

Charlotte nodded but still looks to the painting hanging on the cottage's wooden walls. "I noticed that."

From the front of the room, Amy looks around to the paintings in wonderment. "Wow," She breathed out. "I mean, really. Wow."

"Yeah, I know it's a mess. I'll have a proper clear-out. I must, I really must."

Charlotte ignored Vincent. Nothing like that was going to happen, at least while she was here. She moves on to look at a section of a wall dedicated to small drawings sketched with black ink in the kitchen area connected to the main room. One, at eye-level to Charlotte, was of a beautifully done iris. However, due to unknown reasons, it was left unfinished with a half-done petal and no stem.

"Coffee, anyone?" asks Vincent.

Charlotte, who was still in the same room as him, looks back to him as he lifts the coffee pot off of a beautiful painting of a basket of oranges.

"Not for me, actually." The Doctor peaks his head through the open door, spotting Vincent brush off the coffee ring with his hand. "You know, you should be careful with these," He suggested. "They're... precious."

Vincent glances at him as he waved the coffee off his hand. "Precious to me. Not precious to anyone else."

"They're precious to me," said Amy when she popped her head through the doorway.

"Well, you're very kind." He looked up to Amy. "And kindness is most welcome."

The Doctor interrupted them once again, "Right, so, this church, then." Unnoticed by the other two, Charlotte kicked his foot. To her, he was coming off suspicious. Sending her a testing look, which she returned with a blank one, he continued. "Near here, is it?"

Pulling out wood from the rack beside the fireplace, Vincent gave the Doctor a skeptical look. "What is it with you and the church?"

"Oh, just casually interested in it, you know."

As Van Gogh turns to throw the wood into the fireplace, Charlotte whispered to the Doctor, "No one is casually interested in an 1890s church."

Vincent threw the wood into the fireplace. "Far from casual. It seems you never talk about anything else." He looks to Amy as she set a widdled twig down, "He's a strange one."

"Okay, so let's talk about you, then," the Doctor began. "What are you interested in?"

Amy moves away from _'Starry Night', _which hangs on a part of the wall proudly on its own, to stand on Charlotte's left- interested in Vincent's answer herself.

"Well, look around." He motions his arm around the room. "Art. It seems to me there's so much more to the world than the average eye is allowed to see." Vincent looks to the group of three who listened to him intently. "I believe, if you look hard, there are more wonders in this universe than you could ever have dreamed of."

The Doctor looked to Amy and Charlotte. "You don't have to tell me."

Later, as the Doctor listens to Vincent go on about art and color attentively, Charlotte snuck out with Amy to look at the artwork outside instead. Admiring a painting of a fruit bowl, Amy says to Charlotte teasingly, "Nice dress."

Quick to say something about Amy's own wedding, she stopped immediately when she remembered the events from the previous episode. Instead, Charlotte says, "Shut it."

"Who's the special guy?" Amy questioned with a cheeky smile despite a good, but wrong, guess on who it was.

Charlotte looked to her strangely. Has she never brought up her Ian before? "... Ian James, of course." She crossed her arms over her chest due to being both cold and uncomfortable. "Who else would it be?"

Amy was close to responding, opening her mouth to, but before she could answer at all she was pushed by an invisible force to the ground with a scream.

Alarmed, Charlotte shouted her name, crouching down beside her. "Are you alright?!" She asked urgently while Amy sat up on the ground.

Hearing her screams from inside, the Doctor comes running to the courtyard with Vincent. "Amy? Amy?" He called, looking around the courtyard for what could've done it (but saw nothing). "What happened?"

Still on the ground, she replied with, "I don't know. I didn't see it. I was having a look at the paintings out here when something hit me from behind."

"It's okay," the Doctor reassured her. "He's gone now and we're here."

Charlotte stood up, gulping when she saw Vincent staring at seemingly nothing. "Actually... " She began slowly, "I don't think it's gone yet."

"No!" Vincent said as he backed up from the three with a cry.

"Take it easy!" The Doctor yells to him but Vincent doesn't listen, continuing to back up with shouts. "Take it easy!" He called to him again.

Now, Vincent turns around to the small patio area. Grabbing a long two-pronged wooden fork and pointing it in their direction.

Amy stands up, looking to the artist baffled. "What's happening?" She asked the Doctor. "What's he doing?"

"I don't know," says the Doctor, watching Vincent with panicky as he pointed the pitchfork in their direction.

Still holding onto the pitchfork, Vincent comes barreling forward to the three with a battle cry. While the Doctor moves to their right, Charlotte screamed as she pushed an equally terrified Amy to their left.

Vincent doesn't follow any of them, instead following the invisible monster around the courtyard. "Run!" He warned, waving his arm around. "Run!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not a bad idea." The Doctor agreed but didn't follow his orders. "Amy, Charlotte, get back. He's having something kind of fit. I'll try to calm him down."

Charlotte, following Amy, hides behind a painting hanging between two pillars. Watching past one of these pillars, Charlotte sees the Doctor move a few yards in front of Vincent, who looks around on high alert for the beast.

"Easy, Vincent, easy," Says the Doctor, putting his hands in the air. "Look, look. It's me, it's me, it's me. It's the Doctor, look. No-one else is here. So, Vincent-" Beside the Doctor, a barrel topples over.

Alerted, Vincent shouted to him, "Look out!" Only a second later the Doctor was pushed harshly onto the ground.

The painting Charlotte and Amy hide behind was ripped by the animal, causing both of their eyes to widen in fear. "I can't see anything!" Amy shouted to the Doctor over the commotion. "What is it?"

Struggling standing up after being pushed to the ground, he responded. "That is a good question..." He quickly grabbed a pole and turns to the painter. "Let me help you!" He ran to an area not even close to where Vincent stood, waving the stick around.

"You can see him too?" Asked Vincent.

Charlotte shouted the obvious, "No! No, he can't!"

However, she didn't help. Only a second later, with a growl, the invisible animal sent the Doctor flying back again and the pole landed beside him in the dirt.

"You couldn't see him?" Van Gogh asked, surprised he would want to lie about such a thing.

Panting he answered, "No. Oi!" He jumps up, grabbing the pole and started to swing it wildly around for the second time. All the while, Amy and Charlotte watch as Vincent plunges the pitchfork into the animal. Causing it to, much to Charlotte's displeasure, run away injured.

Looking back to the Doctor, he still swings the pole around. Leaving their hiding place, Charlotte and Amy stand beside Vincent as they watch the Doctor from behind as he continues to fight the air as if he were a fencer.

Amused by this, she nudged Vincent when he was about to reveal he's already taken care of the animal. A smile grew on her lips as the Doctor continued to fight the air bravely. Turning around, he awkwardly swung the pole over his head and pushed it into the ground... only for it fall seconds later.

"He's been gone for a while," Vincent told him.

"Oh, right," He panted out. "Of course." Glancing to Charlotte, he noticed her hand covering her mouth and her crinkled eyes looking to him further hinting that she had one of her wide, gleaming smiles. The Doctor even knew when she began 'coughing' behind her hand, she was laughing. He didn't mind at all.

Walking back inside the cottage, Charlotte still wore a small smile from earlier but it was so minor not even the sharpest pair of eyes could spy it out.

"Right," began the Doctor as he pushed his hair back. "So he's invisible. What did he look like?"

Sitting down in the chairs beside the fireplace, Charlotte watched in shock with the Doctor and Amy as Vincent came in right behind them- grabbing a paintbrush and dipped it in white paint. Without hesitation, he brushed over a beautiful painting of violets. "Let me show you," said he.

Even though she expected it, Charlotte gasped. Like her, Amy covered her mouth as she did as well.

Realizing what Vincent was doing a second too late, the Doctor looks to him as if he witnessed something tragic. "Oh, no, no. No, no!"

"What?" Vincent turned to him, confused.

"It's juster, that was quite good." The Doctor explained with a sigh, looking to the covered painting. "Oh, no... On you go."

Vincent soon began drawing what he saw as the three sat snug on the couch. Amy looking to him intently, Charlotte staring off in deep thought- her eyes narrowed as she did, and the Doctor's knee bobbing up and down... growing more impatient as time wore on.

Charlotte, sitting uncomfortably in the middle, had her eyes directed to Vincent but her mind was elsewhere. She still can't comprehend where she was now, so surprised by what happened she could hardly think.

It's like winning the lottery. So rare no one thinks it'll happen but when it does you don't know what to think. You just have that wild smile taking over your face. That's when one person becomes pure red hot anger. How dare you enjoy your win while they sit there with their own wasted scratch off?

That's how Charlotte felt now... As if she was the unfair winner that's cheating someone else out of their just win. She didn't dare think of her family, not here and not now. When the Doctor stood up from the couch, Charlotte was knocked out from her thoughts.

He looked over Vincent's shoulder as he finished the sketch. Done with it, he raises the canvas to give the Doctor a better look. "Okay," the Doctor says in a low whisper. "Okay." He grabs the said canvas from Vincent's hands, swinging it around as he talked with his hands.

"Right." He began. "Amy, make Mister Van Gogh comfortable. Don't let any invisible monsters through the front door," He wisely advised.

Charlotte stands up, ready to follow along with him to the TARDIS, thinking she could possibly change out of her dirty dress. A second after her, Amy does as well to stop the Doctor as he was close to leaving.

"But it could be outside," She reminded him. "... Waiting."

He nodded slightly. "Well, don't worry. I'll risk it... What's the worst that can happen?"

"Famous last words," Charlotte contradicted.

"You could get torn into pieces by a monster you can't see," Amy darkened.

The Doctor blinks. "Oh right, yes, that." He said. "Don't worry. We'll be back before you can say, _'Where they out to now?'"_

They walk into the main room, only for Charlotte to turn to the Doctor unsurprised as he ran back in a second later. "NOT SO FAST!" He shouted, leading to the shrieks from Amy and Vincent and an impatient sigh from Charlotte.

His voice dropped to a quiet piano after giving the two near heart attacks. "But pretty fast," he gave a small pause. "See you around." The Doctor walks back through the doorway and, alongside Charlotte, leaves through the front door.

Hanging beside the door was the still-lit candle, for as long as Charlotte could see, the only light on the cobblestone pathway. She treads on the heels of the Doctor as he leads her to the TARDIS. While she was exceptionally excited to see the interior of this Doctor's TARDIS (it was her favorite), she found herself unable to show the pure excitement she was feeling on the inside.

The Doctor says something to her as they passed a child being scolded by his mum outside their home, but Charlotte didn't hear and only responding with a 'hm.'

An older woman, walking with a cane, scrutinizes Charlotte with her eyes glued to the white dress that seemed alien for the 1890s.

He stopped in front of the alley that leads to the TARDIS, looking down the one he and Charlotte just walked up then glances to the left. Seeing nothing, the Doctor moves on the right path. Both him and Charlotte speeding up when the TARDIS grows closer.

Immediately, he held the door open for Charlotte first, she then walked in with the Doctor close behind her. She looks up, amazed... While the last TARDIS was just as beautiful, she didn't have time to truly open her eyes to her elegance. The Doctor closes the door and she looks back to him.

"... Where's my room?" She asks him, then thought for a second as he didn't answer. "Do I have one?"

He looked down to oddly as if she said something stupid. "Oh, yeah you do." The Doctor pointed at an entrance to the TARDIS corridors. "Go down there, to the left, up the first set of stairs, and then the second..." He pauses, scrunching his eyebrows. "No, _third _door on the right."

She nods, even though she didn't remember the full directions. "Okay..." She drew out, moving in the direction of that corridor's entrance while the Doctor goes to the console.

Eventually, she did find the room. The door with a rounded top stood menacingly in front of her with a small, golden plaque in the middle, like the other doors, with the room's purpose written on it with Braille underneath. _'Charlotte Mary Bolton's Bedroom'_ it read.

She gulped. No, Charlotte wasn't afraid of going inside the room itself- she was terrified of what it meant to go inside. Homes have a bedroom, going in there would be equivalent to moving on. Or, maybe instead, moving forward.

Taking hold of the tarnished bronze doorknob, she breathes in deeply and opened the door like one would with tearing off a bandaid.

The inside wasn't what she made it out to be. It was a completely normal, yet oddly bare, bedroom. With a bed against the back wall, a desk covered with nothing more than a single book and a picture frame, and a dresser in front of the bed. She walks in slowly, locking the door behind her.

Charlotte stands in front of the dresser, trying to open the top drawer but to no avail. Pulling harder, it still wouldn't budge. The brunette cracked her knuckles before setting her hands on both sides of the second drawer down, pulling even harder this time... only to open it with comical ease.

Not wasting any more time, she threw off the dress (laying it carefully on the bed), then easily picked an outfit of jeans, a striped shirt, and an army green jacket over. Charlotte takes an extra minute looking for a pair of shoes, only to find a pair of combat boots resting behind boxes underneath the bed and slipped them on quickly.

Next, she left her room, hiking back down to the console area. However, walking into that room, she sees only an empty chest with items strewn around it. Charlotte immediately knew the Doctor had to have left the TARDIS (as there wasn't any sight of him). So, with a sigh, she exits the ship.

Opening the door, Charlotte sees the Doctor standing right outside of the TARDIS wearing a gizmo around his torso that had a mirror peering over his shoulder at an angle. He moved a little to his left to make room for her. Moving out of the spaceship, she closes the door behind her.

Once the Doctor adjusted the mirror going over his shoulder, a reflection of the creature was shown. A second after, the device beeps. "That's better, old girl," He says, unfazed by the reflection while he adjusted the settings. "Time delay, but you always get it right in the end. Good. Let's find out who this is, then."

Flicking a switch on the device, they both watch as the mirror tells them more about the creature- or, the Krafayis. It said their planet origin, social structure, and lastly their preferred habitat while having an image of one on the side.

"Oh, you poor thing," the Doctor said quietly once reading it. "You brutal, murderous, abandoned thing. I hope we meet again so I can take you home."

Glancing back into the mirror, Charlotte's eyes widened in alarm as the Krafayis is shown again... raising its head as it roared. "Maybe later," She said to the Doctor while looking into the mirror with him.

The Doctor silently agrees. Only a split second later he and Charlotte began running through the stone alleys- him looking to the mirror frequently mid-chase. Charlotte stops, looking back to the Doctor as he paused to push down a table. Beginning to run again, he stopped again to knock over another table. "Take that," He said. The Doctor pushed down a broom that leaned against the wall. "And that."

They continued being chased by the creature. Seeing the alley break up, with an opening on her left, Charlotte goes that way. Leaning against the wall taking in deep breaths, the Doctor moves to stand beside her doing the same.

He stares into the mirror, seeing the Krafayis in the distance give up on the chase... running away and pushing the objects the Doctor knocked to the ground as it did so. The Doctor exhales heavily, resting his head against the wall.

Ready to head back to the cottage, the Doctor and Charlotte turn back to the alleyway they previously retreated- only for him to scream in terror when they were met with the face of Amy.

"Never do that!" said the exasperated Doctor. "You scared the living daylights out of me."

Charlotte wore a smile as Amy defended herself. "Sorry, I got bored," she said. "As much as you admire his command of color and shape, it is hard to get fond of Vincent Van Gogh's snoring."

"That's reasonable," Charlotte agreed with her.

A/N: Chapter three done! Took a little longer than the other ones, but that's just me being lazy. Chapter four will be up soon.


	6. le krafayis en france II

_For Vincent, it was the next morning._ To the three others, it was just a few minutes into the future. Whilst the Doctor went to get the man from his room, Amy sat on a bench and Charlotte stood outside in the courtyard surrounded by potted sunflowers.

Charlotte stood beside Amy, pouring herself a cup of orange juice. "I thought I'd brighten things up," The redheaded called up to Vincent when he left his room, "To thank you for saving me last night."

"Ah," Vincent exclaimed.

Setting the pitcher of orange juice down, Charlotte looks up to him as well. "Amy and I were thinking you'd like to paint them sometime? Possibly?" She sips some of the juice.

Vincent inspected one flower they placed on the balcony. "Yes, well, they're not my favorite flower."

Amy was absolutely shocked. _"You_ don't like sunflowers?"

"No, it's not that I don't like them. I find them complex." As Vincent continued, the Doctor came down from the balcony and poured orange juice into cups for Amy and himself.

"Half-human as they turn to the sun. A little disgusting. But, you know, they are a challenge."

"And one I'm pretty sure you'll rise to," the Doctor responded. "But moving on, there's something I need to show you."

Going back inside Vincent's home, the Doctor hands the artist (who sits down in a chair) the picture of the kurtosis produced by the device. To which he responded...

"That's him! And the eyes, without mercy."

"This is a creature called the Krafayis." The Doctor informed him. "They travel in space. They travel as a pack, scavenging across the universe." He sits down on the couch across Vincent- his eyes hardly leaving the picture of the animal.

Charlotte, along with Amy, watched the Doctor's explanation in interest from the other side of the room.

He continues, "And sometimes one of them gets left behind. And because they are a brutal race, the others never come back. So, dotted all around the universe are individual," he stood up, looking to Vincent, "utterly merciless, utterly abandoned Krafayis. And what they do is, well... kill, until they're killed. Which they usually aren't. Because other creatures can't see them. "

Vincent looked to the mad man from the photograph. "But I can."

"Yes. And that's why we are in a unique position today, my friend, to end this reign of terror." He paused, sitting down in a chair beside Vincent. "So, feeling like painting the church today?"

"What about the monster?"

Charlotte responded instead. "I swear that if you paint the church it'll come."

Standing up, Vincent let out a sigh. "Okay… I'll get my things."

"In your own time," the Doctor told him. "And I promise you, we'll be out of your hair by this time tomorrow."

Vincent paused in the doorway, sending a glance to Amy (who now sits on the couch in front of the Doctor). He soon leaves, heading back to his room.

"This is risky," the Doctor stated when Vincent was out of hearing range

Amy leaned forward. "Riskier than normal?"

The Doctor got up from his spot on the chair, looking through the door for any sight of Vincent. "Well, think about it. This is the middle of Vincent Van Gogh's greatest year of painting. If we're not careful, the net result of our pleasant little trip will be the brutal murder of the greatest artist who ever lived. Half the pictures on the wall of the Musee D'Orsay will," he snaps, "disappear." He sat next to Amy on the couch. "And it will be our fault."

Like Amy, Charlotte sent a worried glance to the Doctor.

Birds were chirping and some chickens clucked as Charlotte waited outside with Amy next to the stairs that went up to Vincent's room for the Doctor to come out from checking on the artist. However, hearing yelling coming from the same room, the two women looked to each then ran up to the room without a word said.

Seeing a solemn Doctor leaning against the railing outside, Amy asked him, "What's happening?"

"We're leaving." He stated. "Everyone knows he's a delicate man. Just months from now he'll..." the Doctor paused, trying to put it lightly, "He'll take his own life." Pushing off the railing, he began walking away.

"Don't say that," Amy pleaded to the Doctor. "Please."

For once, the Doctor was silent- glancing at the two before walking away and back down the steps. Charlotte follows behind him and as she walked down the stairs, she hears Amy come after her.

Soon, they were back inside Vincent's home- at Charlotte's demand, they lingered in hope he comes back. The three took one last look at the paintings, the Doctor looking at the _'Prisoners Exercising' _painting, Charlotte and Amy looked over his shoulder (but both seemed to be collected in their own thoughts, Amy more so than Charlotte).

"Come on," Says the Doctor. "We have to do this on our own. Go to the church at the right time and hope the monster still turns up."

Turning away, Charlotte noticed a new shadow appear from behind them. Hearing steps as well, she turns around after Amy, but before the Doctor. Behind the trio stands Vincent Van Gogh- fully dressed in his coat and straw hat

"I'm ready," Vincent said, pulling a paintbrush from a cup on a table. "Let's go."

Walking down the trail to the church, Charlotte held the case holding the device from earlier the day before as she walked behind Amy and Vincent- who both helped in carrying the art supplies. Unlike the Doctor and Charlotte, Amy and Vincent have been talking the whole way up the trail.

Amy wiped away a tear from her eye with her eyebrows furrowed. Until Vincent mentioned it, she had no clue she was even crying. Behind Amy, Charlotte looks to the back of her head with her lips pushed in a thin line as she thought of what to do.

Instead, the Doctor thought faster than her. "Okay. Okay," he said. "So, now, we must have a plan. When the creature returns-"

Vincent turns around, facing the Doctor. "Then we shall fight him again," He interrupted.

"Well yes, _tick_...But last night we were lucky. They-" meaning Amy and Charlotte- "could have been killed. So this time, for a start, we have to make sure I can see him too."

"And how are we meant to do that, suddenly?" Questioned Amy, who stopped walking a few steps ahead of Vincent.

Charlotte smiled, knowing something she didn't- an event that was uncommon days ago. "The answer is in this case," She clarified proudly, holding up the case as she did. Looking to the redhead, Charlotte realized she didn't help as Amy remained confused.

Dropping the case to her side, her proud smile washed away slightly. "You'll see…"

Charlotte's words were lost as she looked on the trail ahead of them. At the same time as the rest, she sees a funeral procession walking towards them. Her shoulders slumped down in thought of the dead girl from earlier.

"Oh, no," said Vincent as he saw the procession, "it's the poor girl from the village."

The four stand silently at the side of the road, Vincent with his straw hat off respectfully, as the procession walks past. The girl's mother, clad head-to-toe in black, caught Charlotte's eye- but says nothing while she walks down the trail with the rest. Men in the back of the group carry the wooden coffin upon their shoulders- a bouquet of sunflowers set on top catch the onlookers' eyes.

Once they pass, Amy looks over to the Doctor. "You do have a plan, don't you?" She asked him.

"No," he admitted. "It's a thing. It's like a plan, but with more greatness."

Beginning to walk forward on the trail, Charlotte lets out a breath of air. "So, Amy, we don't have a plan and we're doomed."

"Oh, don't say _that..." _The Doctor shook his head exasperated but still held a smile.

As the three began walking to the church, Vincent hesitates… staring at the procession as they continued to march away with the coffin.

Later, they all stood in the church's churchyard. Vincent sat down in front of the blank easel as the three stand beside him. The Doctor put his hands on Vincent's shoulders, leaning down as if he were to give him a message. "And you'll be sure to tell me if you see any, you know, monsters."

The artist looks up to him from the easel. "Yes. While I may be mad, I'm not stupid."

"No. Quite," Responded the Doctor, crouching beside Vincent and looking up to him as he continues. "And, to be honest, I'm not sure about mad either. It seems to me depression is a very complex..."

Vincent shushed him. "I'm working."

"Well, yes." He exclaimed. "Paint. Do painting!"

Later, as Vincent works on the painting's sky, the Doctor watched from behind. "I remember watching Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel," He said. "Wow! What a whinger. I kept saying to him,_ 'Look if you're scared of heights, you shouldn't have taken the job then.'"_

"Shush," ordered Amy.

It wasn't much later, when Vincent had a very rough outline of the church, that the Doctor got a tad more impatient.

"And Picasso," He continued. "What a ghastly old goat. I kept telling him, concentrate, Pablo. It's one eye," he put his hands on Vincent's shoulders, "either side of the face."

With a roll of her eyes, Charlotte lightly kicked his foot. "Quiet!" She hissed.

It was much longer later. The sky is now darker than it's been and a nearby owl hoots in the trees. While Amy looms over Vincent's shoulder, watching as he was finishing the painting, Charlotte lies on the soft grass with her eyes closed and head resting on her hands; trying to take in the earthy smell, but could only catch the minty pine scent coming from the Doctor.

He was sat down beside her with his chin in his palm, as he waited impatiently for the artist to finish his work. "You're being awfully quiet," He remarked to Charlotte.

She opened one eye, looking up to him before closing it with a grunt. "... Just trying to regain some energy before we go running is all," Charlotte whispered.

The Doctor wanted to pull his hair out in boredom. "Is this how time normally passes? Really… slowly… In the right order." He stands up, walking behind Vincent but facing away from him. "If there's one thing I can't stand, it's an unpunctual alien attack."

After him, Charlotte stands up with a yawn. With a hair tie, which she luckily brought, Charlotte ties her hair in a ponytail then strolls up to where the Doctor and Amy grouped up facing away from Vincent.

"Are you okay?" Asked Amy to the Doctor. "You seem a bit, if I didn't know you better, I'd say nervous."

He subtly nodded. "Yes. There's something not right and I can't quite put my finger on it."

Catching the three off guard, Vincent hollered, "There! He's at the window."

Charlotte turns to him with her mouth wide open. "Where?"

"There, on the right." As Vincent answered, the Doctor ran to the case as it rested in front of the church.

"As I thought," he says. "Come on. I'm going in."

Vincent set his paintbrush down. "Well, I'm coming too," He announced, bending down to his case.

"Me too!" Exclaimed Charlotte, standing beside the Doctor with her eyebrows quirked.

"No! You're Vincent Van Gogh." The Doctor pleaded with an arm out to him. "No," He denied Vincent again. Looking over, he sees Charlotte's eyes testing him to deny her as well. "No," the Doctor said anyway.

"But you're not armed," noted Vincent to the Doctor.

"I am."

"What with?"

"Overconfidence, this," he patted the briefcase, "and a small screwdriver. I'm absolutely sorted. Just have to find the right crosactic setting and stun him with it. Sonic never fails. Anyway, Amy, Charlotte, only one thought, one simple instruction. Don't follow me under any circumstances." Finally, he motions Vincent to keep an eye on them then walks away to the church.

"I won't," Says Amy, but Charlotte remained silent.

It was only a moment later, once the Doctor got out of eye view, that Charlotte follows him.

Inside of the dark, empty church the Doctor wears the device over his torso again as he ambled through. As he frequently checks the mirror of the device, he moves it to his right and then adjusted it back to his left. The Doctor turns around, but felt a chill on the back of his neck… as if something were watching him from behind…

Turning around, not expecting to see anything, the Doctor gasped seeing the pale brunette standing behind him. "I thought I told you to stay outside!" He whispered to Charlotte, irritated.

She nodded, looking up to him. "Yes, yes, you did."

The Doctor spun back around, pulling out the sonic screwdriver out from his pocket. Toward a large stained glass window, he buzzed the sonic for only a moment before bringing it back down- looking to the results then slipping the sonic back in his pocket.

Charlotte followed beside him as they walk forward in the room. She breathes more with every step as she grew nervous.

"Damn. He's moved." The Doctor looks away from the mirror on the side away from Charlotte, looking around for any clue of the Krafayis.

Even outside, Amy and Vincent could hear a smash come from where Charlotte and the Doctor stand and the device's mirror was smashed by the Krafayis. Quickly, Charlotte held a tight grip on the Doctor's elbow and yanks him up while small pieces of glass fell from the device.

As the two briskly leave the room, the Doctor takes off the device from his torso then dropping it on the floor forgotten. They run to the door, looking back to see any of hints of the Krafayis behind them.

The Doctor, being first to turn around, screams after seeing Amy appear from the right. Charlotte quits searching for the Krafayis and turns to them.

"Doctor!" Said Amy, standing in the doorway.

"Argh!" He shouted. "I thought I told you- never mind. We'll talk about it later. Quick, in here." Followed by Charlotte and Amy, he hides in the confessional with Charlotte in the same side as he.

As the Doctor spoke to Amy, Charlotte leaned against the back wall. Even after being separated, she could still hear Amy's heavy breathing. Shadows of the small holes of the confessional doors were cast onto them.

"Absolutely quiet," The Doctor whispers to them, opening the slide between the confessional sides, he said to Amy, "Can you breathe a little quieter, please?"

"No." Amy denied quietly from the other side. "He's gone past."

Charlotte pushes one of the confessional red curtains away, looking outside to any sight of the Krafayis as light comes in through the small holes. Only a moment later, the beast smashed Amy's side of the confessional- causing her to scream.

"I think he heard us," commented the Doctor.

"No kidding!" Charlotte whisper-yelled to him only for the Krafayis burst a hole into the door on their side, right by her head.

"That is impressive hearing he's got," the Doctor reported. "What's less impressive are our chances of survival."

"Hey!" Vincent hollered in the main area, causing Charlotte and the Doctor to grin wildly in the chaos.

Vincent continued, "Are you looking for me, sonny? Come on, over here. Because I'm right here waiting for you." In the confessional, they open the door. Watching as Vincent fights the Krafayis with a chair.

From the room they just ran from, Vincent looks over to them. "Come on. Quickly. Get behind me." Vincent called to them.

All at once, the three leave the confessional and moved over to the artist. The Doctor attempted to do something with the sonic, pointing it in the direction Vincent fought. "Doing anything?"

The artist said nothing as he continued to fight the invisible animal with the chair. They back out to the outside of the church. Charlotte looks up to where she suspects the Krafayis stood over them, once Vincent came out with them (the chair still held upwards as a weapon).

The Doctor looked back and forth wildly. "Where is he?"

"Where do you think he is, you idiot?" remarked Vincent. "Use your head." As the creature moves forward, Charlotte notices it creates large footprints in the dirt.

He pointed the sonic toward the Krafayis again. "Anything?"

"Nothing," Vincent answered. "In fact, he seemed to rather enjoy it."

The Doctor moved farther away from the women and Vincent.

Seeing the Krafayis approach the Doctor, Vincent calls out to him, "Duck!" The Doctor ducked from the animal successfully. "Left!" He commanded again, only for the Doctor to get thrown like a rag doll by the beast once more onto the church's exterior wall with a grunt.

They crowded around the Doctor as he was on his knees in pain. "Right, sorry," said Vincent, "Your right, my left."

"This is no good at all," the Doctor remarked, beginning to stand up. "Run like crazy and regroup."

Charlotte rolls her eyes at him, pulling the Doctor up for the second time in that hour.

"Oh, come on," Amy groaned. "In here." Behind her, the three others followed her closely into a crypt blocked by a large door.

However, when they all tried to close the door behind them, the Krafayis jammed its foot in between the door, stopping them from closing it. Stomping his booted foot onto their foot, Vincent easily helped them close the door with ease.

"Right. Okay." The Doctor said, breathing fast after the trouble closing the door. "Charlotte, Amy, Rory-" like how Vincent stomped on the beast's foot, Charlotte did with the Doctor's- only much nicer.

"Who?" Wondered Amy.

Noticing his slip up, the Doctor responded with, "Sorry. Er, Vincent."

"What's our plan?!" Charlotte queried, trying to get the attention off his slip up.

"I don't know, actually. My only definite plan is that in the future I'm definitely just using this screwdriver for screwing in screws." He turns to Charlotte, in hope she had one.

Unfortunately, she was too overwhelmed with the alien animal to think of something to help. "What!" Charlotte says to him.

"Give me a second. I'll be back." Vincent told them before running away.

"I suppose we could try talking to him," the Doctor proposed.

Amy looked at him, shocked. "Talking to him?"

"Well, it would be interesting to get his perspective..." Charlotte agreed as the beast's roar started to crescendo. "But it doesn't seem like he's in the mood to talk at this exact moment." It began to hammer against the door.

"Well, no harm trying." He started speaking to the creature. "Listen. Listen!" The Krafayis stops growling, but the tension remained.

"I know you can understand me," the Doctor continued facing the door, "even though I know you won't understand why you can understand me. I also know that no one's talked to you for a pretty long stretch, but please, listen," the animal grew very quiet.

"I also don't belong on this planet." He hesitated, before continuing. "I also am alone. If you trust me, I'm sure we can come to some kind of, you know, understanding. And then- and then, who knows?"

A window opposite of them shatters, when the Doctor thought he was talking to it, the Krafayis instead found another entrance. The wind enters in, giving an extra chill as they hear the Krafayis' feet stomping on the ground.

"Over here, mate!" Vincent called. The trio went over to him and crouched down behind a stone monument. In his hands, he held the easel he fetched- with its three-pointed legs facing forwards.

"What's it up to now?" The Doctor asked him.

"It's moving around the room." He replied, watching as it did so. "Feeling its way around."

"What?"

"It's like it's trapped. It's moving around the edges of the room."

Amy looks around beside Vincent as they sat behind a sarcophagus. "I can't see a thing."

"I am really stupid," the Doctor said to himself.

"Oh, get a grip!" Amy whisper-yelled to him. "This is not a moment to re-evaluate your self-esteem."

"No, I am really stupid, and I'm growing old." He stated. "Why does it attack but never eat its victims? And why was it abandoned by its pack and left here to die? And why is it feeling its way helplessly around the walls of the room? It can't see. It's blind."

From beside him, Charlotte remembered the next scenes. "Oh my God."

The Doctor instead believed his epiphany shocked her. Now, he started speaking much louder, "Yes, and that explains why it has such perfect hearing!"

Vincent turned to him. "Which unfortunately also explains why it is now turning around and heading straight for us."

Alarmed, Charlotte looks down to him. "Vincent, what's happening?"

"It's charging now. Get back." Vincent stood up and away from the sarcophagus, keeping the easel pointed to the Krafayis as it charged to him, he waved a hand to the three. "Get back!"

Amy stands up beside Charlotte and the Doctor, watching bewildered as Vincent plunged the easel's legs into the Krafayis. Being lifted into the air, as he hung on his legs above them before dropping to the ground. Standing up, he watched with them as the creature also collapses with the easel still stuck in its invisible skin.

Charlotte hesitated to walk forward. With her heart tearing into pieces for the Krafayis as the floor gets wet from their blood, she finds herself looking down at him with worry pouring out. The Doctor joins her, crouching down beside the Krafayis- resting a hand on the belly as he breathes slowly.

"He wasn't without mercy at all," Vincent told. "He was without sight. I didn't mean that to happen. I only meant to wound it, I never meant to…"

The Doctor looked down to the invisible Krafayis with just as much compassion as Charlotte. "He's trying to say something."

"What is it?" The artist asked him.

"I'm having trouble making it out, but I think he's saying,_ 'I'm afraid. I'm afraid.'"_

Charlotte lets go of a shaky breath, putting her hands over her mouth.

"There, there," the Doctor comforted him, stroking the Krafayis' body. "Shush, shush. It's okay, it's okay. You'll be fine. Shush."

"He was frightened... and he lashed out..." Vincent realized quickly. "Like humans who lash out when they're frightened. Like the villagers who scream at me. Like the children who throw stones at me."

The easel stuck inside the beast quits moving up and down. Charlotte's hands drop from her face as she looks down with an unchanging expression.

"Sometimes winning- winning is no fun at all." Said the Doctor. Charlotte couldn't agree more at this moment.

Out in the field, the four all lay on the ground in a circle with their heads in the middle as they held hands. Charlotte was in between Amy and the Doctor as she laid on the soft grass. Above them was the night sky, with the stars shining and creating constellations that she could never point out by memory.

_Ian always could, _she remembered.

It's still such a crazy thought- if she continues traveling with the Doctor, she'd see them from all those different planets.

"Hold my hand, Doctor," Vincent instructed him. "Try to see what I see. We are so lucky we are still alive to see this beautiful world. Look at the sky. It's not dark and black and without character. The black is in fact deep blue," He pointed up to the sky with his and the Doctor's hand.

"And over there, lighter blue." Vincent let go of Amy's hand and gave a sweeping motion to the sky. "And blowing through the blueness and the blackness, the wind swirling through the air and then, shining, burning, bursting through, the stars. Can you see how they roar their light? Everywhere we look the complex magic of nature blazes before our eyes."

"I've seen many things, my friend." The Doctor told him. "But you're right. Nothing quite as wonderful as the things you see."

"I will miss you terribly."

"And we will miss you too, Vincent," Charlotte told him as she felt her hand held by the Doctor grasped tighter.

Back at Vincent's home, he hands the Doctor the self-portrait of him wearing the straw hat in gratitude. "I only wish I had something of real value to give you," Vincent told them.

Holding the painting up to the artist's face, the Doctor widely smiled along with Charlotte as Amy laughs behind her hand. "Oh, no, no, no," He responded. "I could never accept such an extraordinary gift."

Obviously hurt, Vincent's grabs the painting from the Doctor. "Very well. You're not the first to decline the offer."

Charlotte shook her head slightly. "I'm afraid we just can't find room in our wagon for much more…"

"I understand," He replies, nodding along. Vincent looks over to the redhead standing beside Charlotte, holding his arms out with his eyes crinkled in a smile. "Amy. The blessed, the wonderful."

As they hugged, Vincent gave Amy a kiss on both her cheeks. "Be good to yourself," she advised him once they separated, "and be kind to yourself."

"I'll try my best."

Amy rubs one of her cheeks jokingly. "And maybe give the beard a little trim before you next kiss someone."

"I will, I will. And if you tire of this Doctor of yours, return, and we will have children by the dozen."

While he smiled down to her brightly, Amy looks up to him with her eyes wide and made an "eek" noise.

"Doctor, my friend." He says to him. "We have fought monsters together, and we have won. On my own, I fear I may not do as well." The Doctor hugged him tightly, looking over Vincent's shoulder to Charlotte- who looks to Vincent just as troubled as they all felt.

Not too long after, the three stand outside Vincent's home without him. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" The Doctor asked, smiling to Amy and Charlotte.

"I was thinking I may need some food or something before we leave," says Amy.

"Well, no, you're not thinking what I'm thinking." He looks over to Charlotte. "This will be fine, right?"

She smiled brightly, her eyes turning narrow as she answered. "Oh. Everything will be fine."

"All right, good." Looking up to Vincent's home on their right, he shouted to the second story, "Vincent! I've got something I'd like to show you."

Vincent sticks his head out of his bedroom's window. Holding a brush, they notice his hair was messy and his chest was bare.

"...Maybe just tidy yourself up a bit first."

Walking up to the TARDIS, Vincent wore his previous outfit with the straw hat. However, the TARDIS was unexpectedly covered head to toe in advertising posters. Groaning, the Doctor began cutting posters on the door crack with his key.

Before pushing the door open, the Doctor looks to Vincent. "Now, you know we've had quite a few chats about the possibility there might be more to life than normal people imagine?"

"Yes," answered a confused Vincent.

"Well, brace yourself, Vinny."

As Vincent looks inside, he immediately walked back out and circled around the TARDIS. Stopping in front of the door, he looks to the smug Doctor and the two women looking to him with small smiles.

Stepping back inside, they hear him exclaim, "How come I'm the crazy one, and you three stay sane?"

Charlotte herself wondered if one day she'll grow as mad as the man beside her… if she is here for long, that is. Behind the Doctor, she walked inside- noticing when he took Vincent's straw hat off his head and placed it on the coat rack.

Vincent steps to the console, looking to all the small controls placed on it. "What do these things all do?"

The Doctor leaned over the console. "Oh, a huge variety of things. This one here," he turns a knob and classical music played throughout the console room. For a moment, as it played, they danced a little- Charlotte bobbing her head.

"-For instance, plays soothing music," Finished the Doctor, turning off the music. "While this one," he pressed a button, causing the TARDIS to give a distorted sound, "makes a huge amount of noise. And this one makes everything go absolutely tonto."

The TARDIS shakes as it went into motion. Vincent tumbles around the console for a second before holding onto a part of it. Charlotte as well stumbles a little, still not being totally used to the bumpy TARDIS rides, but found her balance rather quickly.

"And this one?"

"That's the friction contrafibulator!" Exclaimed the Doctor, pushing Vincent's hand off it.

He pointed to a red button. "And this?"

"That's ketchup," the Doctor told, then pointing to an identical yellow one beside it. "And that one's mustard."

Laughing under her breath, Charlotte looks to the Doctor. "Because you make burgers mid-flight?"

"Only one time," he said, much to her surprise. The Doctor looks away, as if having a bad flashback then he shivered out of it. "The mess was horrific."

"Mmm, nice," Vincent says in response, gripping on to the Doctor's shoulders. "Come on, back to the cafe and you can tell me about all the wonders of the universe."

"Good idea." The Doctor moves away from him to another side of the console. Pushing a lever down, the TARDIS stops. "Although, actually, there's a little something I'd like to show you first."

Walking out the TARDIS first, Charlotte sees a single poster burning on the ground from the trip there. She steps over it- then looks around herself. Hearing an ambulance in the background, she notices people walking into the Musee D'Orsay, which stands in front of them.

Once the others step out, Charlotte walks closer to the museum with them.

"Where are we?" Vincent asked, stopping their walk as he looks up to it.

"Paris, 2010 AD." The Doctor informed. "And this is the mighty Musee D'Orsay, home to many of the greatest paintings in history."

"Oh, that's wonderful," Vincent responded. His eyes are caught by a group of boys passing by listening to the radio.

Charlotte bumps his arm lightly. "Don't mind them. There's something more important to show you."

They finally walked into the museum. Having to pull Vincent, overwhelmed with the museum, past a few of Monet's paintings and a painting by Renoir showing a woman with dirty blonde, wavy hair staring at the watcher with a small smile.

Going up the stairway, he stopped to get a look at the statue. Following behind the rest, however, he is caught wordless once they reach his exhibit. Looking around, Charlotte saw people looking at his paintings in awe and even taking photographs of some.

Vincent looked back to the Doctor as he spun around, then to Charlotte as she smiled proudly.

Besides the Doctor, she listened as he approached Dr. Black. "Dr. Black," He began pushing him a little closer for Vincent to hear. "We met a few days ago. I asked you about the church at Auvers."

Clueless for a second, he remembered who he was. "Oh, yes. Glad to be of help. You were nice about my tie."

"Yes. And today is another cracker if I may say so." Black nodded in appreciation. "But I just wondered, between you and me, in a hundred words, where do you think Van Gogh rates in the history of art?"

Charlotte looks to Vincent, who seems to listen in.

"Well, big question, but to me, Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all."

As he began to tear up, Vincent's eyes turned red.

"Certainly, the most popular great painter of all time. The most beloved. His command of color, the most magnificent."

The Doctor took Charlotte's hand in his, but she let go nearly instantly.

"He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world. No one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again." Charlotte nods along, agreeing with him.

"To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world's greatest artist but also one of the greatest men who ever lived."

Looking back to Vincent, the two see him burst into tears.

"Vincent." The Doctor goes up to him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Is it too much?"

"No." He confirmed in between sniffles. "They are tears of joy. Thank you, sir." Vincent goes up to Dr. Black, hugging him as he quietly cried into his shoulder. Pulling away, he kissed both of Black's cheeks and rubbed his nose. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He responded, very confused. "You're welcome."

Vincent rubbed his beard, remembering what Amy said earlier. "Sorry about the beard," He apologized, before walking away. Leaving Doctor Black flabbergasted.

Back in 1890, the three began their deeply dreaded goodbyes to Van Gogh.

"This changes everything," he stated walking out of the TARDIS. "I'll step out tomorrow with my easel on my back a different man. I still can't believe that one of the haystacks was in the museum. How embarrassing."

Charlotte laughs quietly as she stepped out last.

"It's been a great adventure and a great honor," the Doctor told him. Shaking the artist's hand, they then hug.

"You've turned out to be the first doctor ever actually to make a difference to my life!" He says, pointing a finger to the Doctor.

Smiling, the Doctor pulls out of the hug. "I'm delighted. I won't ever forget you."

Vincent turned to the grinning brunette. "It's been a pleasure knowing you as well, Charlotte."

Giving him a joking two-fingered salute, she replies, "The pleasure is mine."

"Oh, come on," Groaned Vincent, pulling her into a hug which she reciprocated with a tight embrace. "How did you break into my house in the first place?" He questioned her as she pulled away.

"A magician never reveals her secrets," Charlotte responded with a wink.

Then, to give Amy and Vincent some space as they said their own goodbyes, Charlotte follows behind the Doctor into the TARDIS. After closing the door behind her, Charlotte began to feel the pins and needles poking at every inch and part of her body. For a second, her hands shake before she disappears for the third time.

She hurtles around, eyes closed with fear of opening them, feeling air push past and her ponytail flying around rapidly. Then it all stopped. Charlotte feels the floor beneath her feet and opening her eyes she sees herself in the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS again… only for the TARDIS to start shaking uncontrollably.


	7. charlotte and ian

_As the TARDIS is flung around, Charlotte looks to the other side of the console._ Seeing a mess of blonde hair flying around next to the Tenth Doctor as he tried to steady the TARDIS. Suddenly, the TARDIS came to a halt. Gas masks fell from the ceiling and the power being completely off caused Charlotte hardly able to see anything.

Looking up from where she fell to the floor Charlotte noticed Mickey lying on the ground breathing heavily.

"Everyone alright?" The Doctor asked as he stood up from the other side of the console. "Rose? Mickey?" He looks over at the brunette standing on the opposite side of the console as she heaved slightly, then visibly relaxed a little. "Oh Charlotte, you're here, that's good."

Mickey glances at Charlotte oddly confused but turns away once getting a look back. "I'm fine," he responded to the Doctor. "I'm okay. Sorry. Yeah."

While Charlotte calmed, the Doctor looked to the console with a long face. "She's dead." A click was heard, and the engines cooled down and steam came from the console. "The TARDIS is dead."

"You can fix it?" Rose wondered, standing beside him.

The Doctor walked slowly around the console. "There's nothing to fix. She's perished." He pulled a lever but gave no change. "The last TARDIS in the universe. Extinct."

"We can get help, yeah?" Says Rose, trying to help.

"Where from?"

Charlotte shrugged. "Well, we landed- we _have_ to be _somewhere."_

The Doctor around to face Charlotte with an incredulous expression. "We fell out of the vortex, through the void, into nothingness. We're in some sort of no place... The silent realm... The lost dimension."

As he was talking, a beaming Mickey opened the door to reveal London outside the TARDIS. "Otherwise known as London?" With a laugh, he stepped outside.

Charlotte smirked at the Doctor. "Some silent dimension!" She mocked him.

Promptly leaving the TARDIS, they found themselves in London with two Zeppelins taking over the sky above them. The Doctor stood by the TARDIS, putting the trench coat back on.

Mickey, however, didn't notice the Zeppelins in the sky. "London, England, Earth," he said, as if he were an alien tour guide. "Hold on..." Jumping off the low wall the TARDIS was parked, he picked up a discarded newspaper from the ground. "First of February this year. Not exactly far-flung, is it?"

"So this is London," the Doctor confirmed.

"Yep."

Charlotte raised her eyebrows, jumping down from the low wall. "Same one as always?"

"That's the one!"

The Doctor continued, "Just as we left it."

"Bang on."

Looking up, he finished, "... And that includes the Zeppelins?"

Mickey and Rose raised their heads to the sky, watching as the massive airships zipped past. Charlotte, in a way, thought it was beautiful.

"What the hell?" Muttered Mickey.

Rose watched as the Zeppelins flew past. "That's beautiful."

Looking in the pier's direction, there were many more Zeppelins taking over the sky. "Okay," said Mickey, "so it's London with a big international Zeppelin festival."

"This is not your world." The Doctor told the group as they began walking down the pier.

Mickey stopped walking. "But if the date's the same... it's parallel, right? Am I right? Like a parallel Earth where they've got Zeppelins. Am I right? I'm right, aren't I?"

Charlotte nodded, looking at him with a lopsided smile. "Good job, Mickey."

Not too far ahead of them, Rose was the first to notice an advert for Vitex Life (cherry flavor!) with Pete Tyler holding the product in his hand. "So, a parallel world where..."

Mickey remained oblivious to the advert, cutting off Rose. "Oh, come on. You've seen it on films. Like an alternative to our world where everything's the same but a little bit different, like, I don't know, traffic lights are blue, Tony Blair never got elected."

Rose's eyes were still concentrated on the advertisement in front of them. "And he's still alive," she paused, "a parallel world and my dad's still alive..." As Rose makes her way to the advert, the three others follow close behind.

"Don't look at it, Rose." The Doctor warned her. "Don't even think about it. This is not your world."

Charlotte opened her mouth to say something but closed it once she felt the newsstand guy's phone buzz in her pocket. She steps back from the group, pulling out the phone and flipping it open, Charlotte immediately recognizes the number. It was Ian's.

Putting it to her ear, she says, "Hello?"

Then Charlotte heard his oh so familiar American accent clear as day. _"Oh... er, is Jose there?"_

"Yes!" She exclaimed, a little too loud. "Yeah, he's in the bathroom."

_"Charlie?"_ He used to call her that, Charlie, but stopped a long time ago in favor of Charlotte.

Her eyes widened. "Yeah?"

_"What are you doing with-" _Ian pauses for a second. _"Nevermind. Can you just tell Jose that Jessie and me will pick him up outside the McDonald's for the party?"_

Charlotte sat down on the low wall. "Yeah, yeah, totally. What are you doing with Jessie?"

He let go of a deep breath into the phone. "We're dating. We've been through this."

"Since when?" She asked as she ran a hand through her hair, sitting on the low wall.

_"You know since when."_

Now, Charlotte has always had her concerns about the many nights Ian and Jessie Westbrooke have spent together 'as friends', but she's never wanted to be seen as 'too clingy' by him, so she never questioned it. Yet there has been a permanent voice telling her to be suspicious, one she brushed away whenever it began speaking.

"I'll tell Jose," Said Charlotte, breaking the silence.

Ian thanked her but hung up without any extra words.

Shoving the closed phone back into her pocket angrily, she stood up and walked back to the three. While Rose and Mickey surrounded the sign, Charlotte found herself bombarded by the Doctor.

He put a reassuring hand on her left shoulder. "Everything all right?" He asked calmly, noticing her miserable expression.

"Peachy," She quickly said, swatting his hand away.

"Tell me later?"

Thinking, Charlotte took a second to answer, then she nodded her head in the hope he'd leave her alone. The Doctor looked down at her, although, he quickly returns to the task at hand.

Charlotte, as well, was thinking like him... If they won't be leaving soon, which she knew, would she see Ian before the Cybermen appear?

It was only a few minutes later. While the Doctor and Mickey were in the TARDIS, Charlotte sat beside Rose on a bench on the pier. Above, a Zeppelin's propellers thrumming caught both of their eyes as it flew above the Thames... with the amount of them there, it made London feel alien to Charlotte.

To her left, Rose seemed to be stuck in deep thought. "I know what you're thinking," says Charlotte, trying to be helpful.

Scowling, the blonde looks over to her. "He's my dad, even if he's not. Is it a bad thing I want to meet him?"

Her eyes widened, not expecting her to be that defensive. "I'm not saying youshouldn't see him. Just, just realize that he won't be the Pete you know."

"You're acting different," Rose blurted out. "Usually you're all _'no, we can't do that we'd destroy the fabric of reality, blah, blah, blah.'"_

Charlotte tilted her head. "I must've had a point though, right?"

"Most of the time you really haven't..." Rose said before pondering. "Sorry."

With a small laugh, she shook her head. "No, no. My future self actually sounds boring."

Smiling slightly, Rose's eyebrows knit together. "You're new to all this, yeah?"

"Third time." Charlotte nodded.

"Really?"

"Mhmm," She hummed in response.

For a second, the two sat in silence until Rose spoke, "Do you want to see anyone here? I saw you on the phone."

"Huh? Oh, no, no, no. He got the wrong number, I think it may be that my phone is the exact same as someone else's,_ my _phone must've just been called instead..."

While Charlotte nervously went on to the story of how she accidentally stole her phone, not ready to tell about her talk with Ian yet, Rose fell out of attention- watching as another Zeppelin flies above them, a Cybus logo stamped on its belly.

"I mean, I would give the phone back to him... but I doubt I'd see him again," Charlotte finished, finally realizing Rose wasn't listening. "Yeah..."

Rose's phone beeps. Looking over her shoulder, Charlotte notices she got a message from the Cybus Network: _Welcome! Free Trial Period _it read_. _Moving to IE24 News, a Newsreader on her phone said:

_"-And its good news for Britain as John Lumic returns to the country of his birth. Mister Lumic, the inventor of high content metal, has denied allegations of ill health."_

Then Lumic said:

_"We're all flesh and blood, but the brain is what makes us human. And my mind is more creative than ever."_

Charlotte rolled her eyes at Lumic, unnoticed by Rose.

The Newsreader continued by saying:_ "With shares in Cybus Industries doubling in price, Mister Lumic is-" _a Zeppelin that's passing overhead's rotors blocked out the rest of the statement. However, Rose stared off to the Zeppelin, realizing who must be inside it.

_"In other news, the Torchwood Institute published a study claiming that we may receive an Alien attack by the year 2020."_

Rose left the IE24 News and began looking herself up on the Internet. Knowing exactly what she'll find, Charlotte faces away from her phone and watches as the Zeppelins slowly moved in the air. Soon, hearing steps coming from her left, she looks in that direction to see the Doctor and Mickey approaching the bench.

"There you are. You both alright?" He asked them, sitting on Rose's other side- unintentionally causing Mickey having to sit on top of the bench's arm.

"No applause," the Doctor continued, holding out the TARDIS power cell in his hand with a grin. "I fixed it. Twenty-four hours, then we're flying back to reality." Looking over to the glum Rose, his grin diminished. "What is it?"

"My phone connected," she began explaining. "There's this... Cybus Network. It finds your phone. It gave me Internet access."

"Rose, whatever it says, this is the wrong world."

"I don't exist," she revealed quietly.

"What do you mean?" He asked her.

"There's no Rose Tyler. I was never born. There's Pete, my dad, and Jackie. He still married mum, but they never had kids."

"Give me that phone." He reached for the phone in her hand, but she pulled it away from him.

"They're rich." As she continued, Charlotte noticed how she sounded and looked closer to tears. "They've got a house and cars, and everything they want. But they haven't got me." Rose shot up from the bench, looking down at the Doctor. "I've got to see them."

"You can't." He denied.

"I just want to see him."

The Doctor refused again. "I can't let you!"

"You just said twenty-four hours!" Rose replied back fiercely, beginning to walk further away.

"You can't become their daughter, that's not the way it works." He insisted. "Mickey, tell her."

Rose fired back with "Charlotte, tell him."

With her eyes wide from being mentioned, Charlotte stands up from the bench as well.

The Doctor looks at her in dismay. "Oh, not you too."

She raised her hands sarcastically, standing beside Rose. "The universe won't explode because she sees her _father_, Doctor."

Mickey stood up too, but to go in the opposite direction of Rose and Charlotte- to the right. "Twenty-four hours, yeah?" He restated, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets.

Jumping up from the bench, the Doctor looks at Mickey bewildered. "Where're you going?"

"Well, I can do what I want!"

Rose waved the phone at the Doctor, walking backward to the left. "I've got the address and everything."

Charlotte, glimpsing to the Doctor as she ambles away, sees him turning back and forth frantically from her and Rose to Mickey. "Stay where you are, all of you! Charlotte, Rose, come back here! Mickey come back here right now!" He tried to demand.

Rose, turning back around, was tired of his disagreeing. "I just want to see him!"

"Yeah, I've got things to see and all," Mickey vaguely told him.

"Like what?" The Doctor asked him.

"Well, you don't know anything about me, do you? It's always about Rose. I'm just a spare part." Once Mickey said that the Doctor's shoulders sagged down, defeated.

"I'm sorry. I've got to go." Rose began walking away backward, before turning around to walk away with her hands pushed deep into her denim jacket's pockets.

Charlotte hesitates to leave but walked slowly behind Rose.

"Go on then." Said Mickey as he gestured to Rose and Charlotte. "No choice, is there? You can only chase one of us, and it's never going to be me is it?"

The Doctor stood at a crossroads. While he immensely wanted to group with Charlotte and Rose, he also felt as if he hardly knew Mickey, and leaving him alone would just dig a deeper hole for himself to him.

The Doctor looks back to Charlotte and Rose as they walk away. To himself, he wonders why Charlotte headed with Rose... was something going to happen on Rose's path? If so, he knew which way to go now. Despite the want to head in Mickey's direction, he knew Charlotte didn't remember everything that'll come. And while he trusts her any day, this early in her timeline he refuses to trust her alone when he knew something would happen.

"Back here in twenty-four hours!" The Doctor shouted to Mickey, then running to catch up with Rose and Charlotte.

Mickey, watching as he retreated, says to himself, "Yeah, only if I haven't found something better."

"Mickey's mum just couldn't cope," Rose told the Doctor as they walked down a street filled with people wearing the same earpieces.

"His dad hung around for a while, but then he just sort of wandered off. He was brought up by his gran. She was such a great woman. God, she used to slap him!" Along with her, Charlotte cracked a smile. "And then she died. She tripped and fell down the stairs. It's about five years ago now. I was still in school."

"2001?" Charlotte wondered aloud.

"Yeah."

Giving a hum in response, Charlotte figures she would've been around twelve at the time.

"I never knew," said the Doctor.

Charlotte looks at him, shrugging as they continued to walk down the street. "That's on you," she said to him, to his shock- looking down at her confusedly. "You should've asked!"

"You never said," He shot back, only to get an annoyed push in the side as response.

"That's Mickey," said Rose. "I suppose I, we just take him for granted." She admitted as they continued walking to the Tyler house. Catching Charlotte's eye, Rose asked her, "Is she still alive, his gran?"

For a moment, she wasn't going to say anything, then decided against that. "Yeah, she is. That's who he's seeing right now, too." She was silent for a second. "We still need to get out of here soon, though... Anything could happen."

Right after Charlotte uttered those words, every single person on the streets, including the policemen, stops still in their tracks- leaving the three the only people not standing as still as a statue. They looked at a blonde woman that stopped to the left of us, then went to a short dark-skinned guy heading in the opposite direction of the group. Both of them with unblinking eyes as their ear pods flashing.

"What're they all doing?" Rose asked.

"They've stopped..." Responded the Doctor, inspecting the ear pods.

Charlotte pointed to the ear pod the Doctor stared at. "All of them are connected," she revealed, "Like Bluetooth, but much, much larger."

"It's on my phone." Rose pulled out her phone, showing it getting updated with information. Looking up from over Rose's shoulder for a second, Charlotte saw the Doctor put on his glasses.

"It's automatic, look. It's downloading. Is this what they're all getting? News, international news, sports, weather..."

"They get it direct," observed the Doctor, looking at Rose's phone. "They download it right to their heads."

Watching as it continued to update, Rose lists them off, "TV schedules, lottery numbers."

They still wander past the paused people, occasionally taking peeks at the ones we passed to see if anything changes.

"So," Charlotte started. "Everyone is sharing the same information- which is a daily download by Cybus Industries."

Once Rose handed the phone to the Doctor the next download, Jokes, finished and caused people to laugh hysterically before continuing their day- walking in the same direction they were before as if nothing happened.

"You lot, you're obsessed," the Doctor said. "You'd do anything for the latest update.

"But not my lot!" Rose exclaimed, proudly smiling. "Different world, remember."

The Doctor, looking through the phone, said, "It's not so far off your world- either of your worlds, probably. This place is only parallel."

Charlotte looked down at the phone as the Doctor says, "Oh look at that. Cybus Industries owns just about every company in Britain, including Vitex. Mr. Pete Tyler is very well connected..."

Rose looked to the Doctor with her eyes begging to go as she smiled innocently, hanging onto his arm. Charlotte obviously believed he would finally agree, he had to have in the show after all. Yet, he seemed to take longer than she anticipated.

Just before he was going to talk, not wanting to take no for an answer, Charlotte interrupted him. "Great!" She exclaimed. "It's settled. We're going."

Crouching behind the bushes in the front garden of the Tyler Home, they watched as a stretched limo drove past them. Quickly, they noticed a man standing outside the front door, making sure everyone who came to the door was invited.

"They've got visitors," the Doctor said, watching the limo drive up to the mansion's front door.

"February the first." Rose looks to the car as well. "Mum's birthday... Even in a parallel universe, she still loves a party."

Charlotte laughed lightly, looking over to the Doctor on her right. "You brought the psychic paper, right?" She asked him in a whisper.

He held it in front of her with a cocky smile. "I always have psychic paper."

As Charlotte hummed as a response, Rose gave him a look.

"That's to get us in?" She questioned.

The Doctor nodded. Then, trying to not catch any eyes, he led the three out of the shrubbery and to the front entrance of the mansion. Getting ready to pull out the psychic paper, he paused when the man upfront looks straight to Charlotte.

"Oh, Miss. Thomas," he said to her. "I could've sworn I was told you were sick with the flu!" As he chuckles, Charlotte laughed nervously along. He let out a deep exhale. "No need to see any identification from you, I see you enough, huh?"

Smiling, she shook her head awkwardly. "Totally," She said, looking back to the Doctor confusedly before walking inside. The second she stood in the drawing-room, Charlotte felt out of place in her jeans and green jacket. With the lavish mansion, people in beautiful dresses or suits, and the piano playing elsewhere she felt like a bystander.

Tapping her foot impatiently, and feeling eyes rest on her outfit, she watches as a line of waiters and waitresses come from the kitchen in black suits or dresses with trays of refreshments. Near the end of the line, she spotted an unimpressed Rose followed by the Doctor.

Walking up to her, they arrived amidst a conversation. "... We end up serving," says Rose. "I had enough of this back home."

As people grab some of the champagne off Rose's tray and cocktail sticks from the Doctor's the two smiled politely.

"If you want to know what's going on," the Doctor says once they all left, "work in the kitchens."

Seeing many photographs being shot on the other side of the room, Charlotte led them to the left- wanting to watch the proceedings, and hoping to recognize any important people mingling. Groups of the well-dressed people chatted over the others, and eventually causing the room to be filled with the overlay of voices and the piano.

The Doctor nods to a dark skinned man in one of those groups. "According to Lucy, that man over there-"

"Who's Lucy?" Asked Rose, cutting him off.

Nodding to a young waitress on the other side of the room. "She's carrying the salmon pinwheels."

"They look good too," Charlotte added.

"Oh, that's Lucy is it?"

The Doctor looked back to the man, who Charlotte noticed was wearing ear pods- in fact everyone, including Lucy, was. "Yeah. Lucy says, that is the President of Great Britain."

_"President of Great Britain," _Charlotte repeated with a smile.

The Doctor tilted his head. "... Seems so."

In a loud whisper, Rose said, "Or maybe Lucy's just a bit thick."

Quickly, once hearing the voice of Pete Tyler from an area connected to the drawing room, the three moved on. Walking past the guests, the Doctor and Rose still carrying their trays, and Charlotte keeping her head down, they walked in the separated area.

In there, standing halfway up a staircase, Pete Tyler addressed the room of well dressed people as a whole. Listening in, the three stood to the side- Rose gazing up to him intently.

"Um," Pete paused on their stairs, looking around the group of people. "I'd like to say thank you to you all, for coming on this, this very special occasion. My wife's... thirty-ninth-"

"Don't believe that one!" A man not so far from Charlotte commented, cutting off Pete and causing others to chuckle.

He laughed nervously. "Trust me on this," he said with a thumbs up. Charlotte laughs quietly at that along with the crowd.

"And so, without any further ado, here she is, the birthday girl... My lovely wife, Jackie Tyler." To general applause, Jackie Tyler makes her entrance down the stairs in a skin-tight black dress meeting the snap of cameras and claps.

Beside Charlotte, Rose stares up at her mum as she stood beside Pete.

"Now, I'm not giving a speech," she said, halfway up the stairs as well. "That's what my parties are famous for. No work, no politics, just a few good mates and plenty of black market whiskey." This caused the crowd to erupt into laughter again.

Spotting the President in the crowd, she said in her own small laughing, "Pardon me, Mister President!" The room laughed again, as the president held his glass in the air. "So, yeah," finished Jackie, "get on with it. Enjoy, enjoy."

With the crowd's cheers and the camera's flashes, Jackie descends the stairs with Pete to begin mingling. Walking past the three, neither of them noticed the stares sent by Rose.

The Doctor turned to Rose immediately, noticing her stares. "You can't stay," he sternly whispered to her. "Even if there was some way of telling them."

"Course I can't," she responded quickly, as if not thinking about it at all. "I've still got my mum at home, my real mum. I couldn't just leave her, could I. It's just... they've got each other. Mum's got no one."

Charlotte looked at her, extremely worried. "She has you! They don't."

Equally worried, the Doctor sighed as he looked to the ceiling. "All of these different worlds, not one of them seems to get it right."

From the other end of the room, their attention was drawn to Jackie as she left her group. "Rose!" She called.

Charlotte watched with a small grin as a tiny Yorkshire Terrier barked and yelped, cobbling over to meet Jackie.

"There's my little girl!" Jackie cooed, picking up her pet. "Come to mummy, come to mummy! Yes, good girl! Good girl, aren't you?" She turns back to her group, holding the dog.

Charlotte and the Doctor looked over to Rose- who remained speechless as she stared in the direction of her mum. While Charlotte bit her tongue, holding back her laughter, the Doctor cracked up after one look at Rose. Giving him a look, he turned solemn.

"Sorry," he timidly apologized.

Not much later, the three stood silently on the wall as Rose watched Jackie chatting with the President. Hardly noticed by Rose, the Doctor, with his empty tray, leaves the two to walk down a nearby corridor.

Jackie laughs loudly with the President, a glass of champagne in her hand. Noticing someone appear beside Rose, Charlotte looks away from Rose's mum to see Pete watching Jackie on Rose's right.

"I remember her twenty-first," he said, still looking at her. "Pint of cider in the George."

Rose, looking over to him, offers the tray. "Sorry, champagne?"

"Oh, might as well. I'm paying for it!" As they both laughed, he took a glass.

Standing on Rose's other side, Charlotte just cracked a smile.

Rose grinned at him. "It's a big night for you..."

Pete turned back to his wife, who still talks to the President. "Well, for her... still, she's happy."

"Yeah, she should be," said Rose. "It's a great party."

"Do you think?" Pete asked, looking back to Rose.

Transfering the tray to her other hand, she gave him a thumbs up. "You can trust me...!"

Finding herself out of place with the two talking to each other as she stood to the side, Charlotte retreated down the same corridor as the Doctor. In hope of finding him, she looked into the open doors of some rooms. Near the end of the hall, however, she sees blue light coming from the windows above the doorway.

Seeing no one looking to her, she opened the door and snuck in quickly. Sitting at the desk was the Doctor, hunched over a laptop. Hearing the door close, he immediately turned around alarmed, but seeing Charlotte made his sudden terror turn to nothing.

"What're you doing here?" He asked quietly, so no passerbys would hear them in the study.

"She started talking to Pete." That was enough said to get the whole picture of why she left.

Wearing his glasses on, he looked back to the laptop- Charlotte looking over his shoulder as he did. "Now, what are they hiding..."

Soon, he opened up the laptop's files and found a poorly hidden presentation. The presentation began with a 3D model of the human brain spinning around slowly with an outline of the body around it. As it did, Lumic gave a voice-over,_ "The most precious thing on this Earth is the human brain..."_

The presentation continues with Lumic giving the history of the human brain... how it's developed and evolved over the hundreds of thousands of years. Biting her lip, Charlotte knew they were growing closer and closer to Cybermen, seeing them in real life in no time.

On the presentation, it shows the front of the head..._ "This is the ultimate upgrade." _Through the ears of the head, two straight lines came out then connected above the head. _"Our greatest step into Cyberspace."_

Charlotte, staring at the presentation, was mortified and wordless. This was her first villain she'll see multiple times. She had no clue how to act, or how to hide her horror... she felt like a coward compared to the Doctor, who ran out with no hesitation._  
_

Charlotte gulped down some of her panic, then ran out behind the Doctor. Standing beside him as he slipped his glasses back into his inside pocket, they searched the crowd for Rose; Charlotte pointed her out on the opposing end of the drawing room.

The three grouped up around a window. The Doctor puts his face up to the glass, as Charlotte and Rose look through it as well- in the distance, Charlotte seeing the faint Cybermen marching to the mansion.

"It's happening again," the Doctor revealed to Rose in a hush.

"What do you mean?"

Charlotte put her face closer to the glass, watched as they got nearer to the building. "He's seen them before," She answered for him.

"What are they?" Rose replied, her voice quavering.

"Cybermen."

All of their heads turn from their window, as they heard windows being smashed by the Cybermens' fists. Stepping inside, causing most of the party to scream in terror as the Cybermen enter. Tall and silver with their emotionless mask, they intimidated even Charlotte...

Walking through the windows and into the drawing room through doorways, the Cybermen crowded the party (including the three) together with no way for an escape.

The President, being grouped in as well and stood in front of Charlotte, answered his communication device the moment it beeped. "Mr. Lumic," he answered the call with a bitter sound in his voice.

Charlotte looked around for any possible way she could possibly run off, but found none as the Cybermen stood strongly when they surrounded the party.

"I forbade this." The President said to Lumic in the call.

As she looked around, Charlotte noticed the Doctor doing the same.

"What are they?" Rose asked the Doctor in a low whisper. "Robots?"

"Worse than that," he answered, just as quietly.

The President's call continued. "Who were these people?" He asked Lumic, looking to one of the many Cybermen that surrounds them.

Listening into the President's conversation as well, Rose looked up to the Doctor. "They're people?"

"They were..." he paused for a moment, continuing in a hushed voice. "Until they had all their humanity taken away. It's a living brain jammed inside a cybernetic body. With a heart of steel. All emotions removed."

Just looking at one of the Cybermen, Charlotte can see what the Doctor explained. They look straight ahead with their cold eyes. In their state now, she can hardly imagine they were human at one point... with loved ones and maybe even a career.

"Why no emotions?"

The Doctor answered Rose, looking down at her. "Because it hurts."

In the call, the President's voice rose. "I demand to know, Lumic, these people, who were they?"

A moment later, after Charlotte suspects Lumic answered, then the call ended. In front of the President and the crowd, a Cyberman stepped forward. It's mouth lit up blue as it spoke, "We have been upgraded."

The Doctor looks at it with everyone else. "Into what?" He questioned it.

"The next level of mankind," it answered, their voice robotic as it caught everyone's attention. "We are Human Point Two. Every citizen will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us."

The President takes a step forward to the Cybermen. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for what's been done to you." He looks to the Cybermen far more sternly. "But listen to me, this experiment ends. Tonight."

However, the Cyberman doesn't stop. "Upgrading is compulsory."

The President tilts his head. "And if I refuse?"

Abruptly, the Doctor answered instead. "Don't."

Only glancing to the Doctor, the President repeated his question. "What if I refuse?"

"I'm telling you, don't." He warned again.

Despite the Doctor's warnings, he asked the question for the third time. "What happens if I refuse?"

"Then you are not compatible."

The President continued to challenge the Cyberman, looking up to it unafraid. "What happens then?"

"You will be deleted." In one swift motion, the Cyberman grips onto the man's neck. With his eyes wide open, the robot sent him to the ground as blue light shot at him like lightning bolts.

As he fell to the ground, the crowd erupted into pandemonium. People ran past the Cybermen while they screamed in horror. The Doctor quickly found Charlotte's hand beginning to pull her through the crowd as she pulled on Rose's, holding onto it as they wound through the chaos.

"There's nothing we can do!" Shouted the Doctor.

After jumping through one of the broken windows, Rose let go to look back inside. "My mum's in there!" She yelled.

"She isn't your mother!" Charlotte shouted in response, grabbing onto the blonde's wrist as they began to run to the right... only to be greeted by a row of Cybermen marching towards them.

Running down the side of the mansion in the opposite direction instead, Rose spotted Pete as he leaped out of a window behind them.

"Quick! Quick!" She shouted, trying to gain his attention.

Seeing the three, he began running along with them on the lawn. They reached the front of the house quickly. Rose, who ran on her own now, looked around for a way out like the Doctor.

"Pete, is there a way out?" He questioned over the noise from inside.

"The side gates!"

As Pete ran with them in the direction he gave, he asked the Doctor, who still held Charlotte's hand while they ran, "Who are you? How do you know so much?"

"You wouldn't believe it in a million years..." He answered, just as they came to a halt when another row of Cybermen marched towards them. Skidding to a stop, they were forced to turn back around.

"Who's that?!" Shouted Rose, who stopped in her tracks.

Looking in the same direction as her, Charlotte spotted two figures running towards them with guns in their hands.

"Get behind me!" Ricky shouted as he crouched onto one knee with the other guy beside him.

As the Cybermen continued to march to them, they all ran behind Ricky- standing or crouching behind him while he and Jake pointed their guns at the Cybermen and began to shoot rapidly. Soon, the Cybermen quit marching and stood still, looking at them menacingly.

When Ricky stood up, Rose immediately began to fuss over him (believing he was Mickey, instead). "Oh, look at you..." She pulled him into a hug. From behind Rose, Charlotte notices a baffled expression from Ricky.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" Rose gushed.

Pulling away from her embrace, Ricky looked down to her blankly. "Yeah, no offense sweetheart, buy who the hell are you?"

All of a sudden, all of their heads turned as they heard someone shout "Rose!" In the distance, as the running person got closer, Charlotte could make out they were Mickey.

Mickey stopped next to Rose once he reached their group. He pointed to Ricky with his thumb. "That's not me. That's like... the other one."

Rose looked back and forth from Mickey to Ricky, as they happened to stand on both sides of her. Charlotte, who stood next to the Doctor, laughed quietly.

"Oh, as if things weren't bad enough, there's two Mickeys!" The Doctor said exasperated.

Charlotte nudged his side with a tight smile.

Ricky, who seemed much tougher than Mickey, looked over to the Doctor. "It's Ricky."

With the loud stomp of their boots, the Cybermen began to surround their group.

"But there's more of them..." Mickey watched the Cybermen in fear.

It was then, a crucial moment, that Charlotte's mind turned to mush as she couldn't remember how they got away in the show. As she began more concentrated on remembering, her eyes turned narrow as they watched the Cybermen create a circle around them.

"We're surrounded..." realized Rose as she looked around.

The second Ricky raised his gun in the air, the Doctor quickly shouted to him, "Put the guns down! Bullets won't stop them."

Ricky obliged, putting his gun down. However, Jake, his spiky blonde haired friend who's crouched on the ground with his gun directed at the row Cybermen in front of him, didn't listen to the Doctor as he began to fire a rally at them.

"No!" Running over to Jake, the Doctor pushed down his gun. "Stop shooting, now!"

Finally, Jake quit shooting, but gave a disdainful look to the Doctor.

"We surrender!" Shouted the Doctor to the Cybermen. "Hands up..."

Including himself, everyone put their hands up. Charlotte put her's up as well only reluctantly. The row of Cybermen in front of them marched forward.

"... There's no need to damage us," he continues, "we're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade program. Take us to be processed."

The Cybermen stopped just feet in front of the Doctor, and the one in the middle speaks. "You are rogue elements."

"But we surrender!" With his arms still raised, the Doctor challenged the Cyberman.

"You are incompatible."

Her hands still in the air, Charlotte looks back and forth between the Doctor and the Cyberman with a distressed look in her eyes.

"But this is a surrender!"

The Cyberman replies with, "You will be deleted."

Frenetic with distress, the Doctor begins to shout louder. "But we're surrendering! Listen to me, we surrender!"

"You are inferior," said the Cyberman. "Man will be reborn as Cyberman but you will perish under maximum deletion." The Cyberman raises it's hand toward the Doctor, and Charlotte grew increasingly nervous some Cybermen moved forward.

"Delete. Delete. Delete!"


	8. charlotte and the cybermen

_The Doctor quickly used the TARDIS power cell._ Pointing it to the Cyberman in front of him, a shot of golden energy hits it then bounces onto the ones surrounding it, until all the Cybermen have the same line of gold energy hitting their chest.

Giving a robotic scream, the Cybermen bent back in pain. Then, they disintegrated into gold particles, and the Doctor lowered the power cell.

Charlotte watched with wide eyes as the other Cybermen began to disintegrate next.

"What the hell was that?" Ricky asks, looking over to the Doctor.

"We'll have that instead," the Doctor remarked, before noticing a new row of Cybermen marching in the distance. "Run!"

Just as they began running away, a blue van drove up with its bright headlights on. The driver, out of the rolled-down window, stuck her head out and yelled to them, "Everybody in!"

Instead of running to the van, Pete ran in the mansion's direction, however, he was quickly held back by the Doctor.

With her feet set in the van's direction, Charlotte spotted Rose starring at the mansion. She turns around, heading straight to the blonde. As Pete and the Doctor hurried to the van, Charlotte stood beside Rose.

"You aren't her daughter!" Charlotte urgently insisted, hearing the van's driver holler to them.

"Yeah, I know." Rose looks away from the mansion being destroyed by the Cybermen and ran behind Charlotte. Jumping into the back of the van, and closed the door behind them.

"Finished chatting?" The driver said again, as she started driving off. "Never seen a slower getaway in my life!"

As they drove along, Ricky looked to the Doctor through the crossed wires blocking from the front seat. "What is that thing?" He asked, pointing to the power cell.

The Doctor, who sits on Charlotte's left, admired the power cell in the palm of his hand. "Little bit of technology from my home."

The power cell was a white crystal that looked similar to the peak of a mountain.

Mickey, sitting on the Doctor's other side, noticed how it was no longer glowing how it used to. "It's stopped glowing. Has it run out?"

"It's on a revitalizing loop," the Doctor stated, carefully placing it back in his pocket. "It'll charge back up in about four hours."

Ricky looked over disappointedly from the front. "Right. So, we don't have a weapon anymore."

"Yeah, we've got weapons." Jake, who was also sitting up in front of the wire, reminded Ricky. "Might not be one of those metal things, but they're good enough for men like him." Jake looked over to Pete with a sharp glare.

"Leave him alone!" Rose defended, giving Jake an intense look. "What's he done wrong?"

"Oh, you know, just laid a trap that's wiped out the Government and left Lumic in charge."

Pete rolled his eyes at him. "If I was part of all that, do you think I'd leave my wife inside?"

"Maybe your plan went wrong," Ricky guessed, without a shadow of a doubt. "Still give us the right to execute you, though."

Remembering what Pete was really doing, Charlotte snapped her head to face Ricky. "Don't even think about executions," She warned. "You'd have bigger things to worry about if you do."

Ricky was left unaffected by what she said. "All the same, we have evidence that says Pete Tyler's been working for Lumic since twenty point five."

Turning over to her parallel father, Rose noticed his uncomfortable expression as everyone glanced at him. "Is that true?" She asked him.

Ricky turned to his left, where the driver sat. "Tell them, Mrs. M."

'Mrs. M.' continued driving as she informed them. "We've got a government mole who feeds us information," she revealed. "Lumic's private files, his South American operations... the lot. Secret broadcasts twice a week."

Hearing that, Pete looked to the front of the van. "Broadcast from Gemini?"

Ricky glares at him while he leaned forward. "And how do you know that?"

"I'm Gemini," he explained. "That's me."

"Yeah, well, you would say that." Ricky pointed an accusing finger at the man.

Pete quickly fired back. "Encrypted wavelength six-five-seven using binary nine."

Jake and Ricky looked to each other, surprised.

"That's the only reason I was working with Lumic. To get information. I thought I was broadcasting to the Security Services. What do I get? Scooby-Doo and his gang." He sighed. "They've even got the van!"

The Doctor looked around the van, faintly impressed.

Mickey shook his head at Pete. "No, no, no. But the Preachers know what they're doing. Ricky said he's London's Most Wanted!"

Behind the wire, Ricky looked around awkwardly. "Yeah, that's not exactly..."

"Not exactly what?" Mickey interrupted him.

"I'm London's Most Wanted for... parking tickets."

Charlotte looked up to Ricky with a twinkle in her eyes as she held back a laugh.

"Great," Pete remarked.

"Yeah, they were deliberate," Ricky rebutted defensively. "I was fighting the system. Park anywhere, that's me."

The Doctor smiled. "Good policy, I do the same," he commented to Ricky. "I'm the Doctorby the way, if anyone's interested."

Looking at Jake and Ricky, Charlotte waved slightly. "I'm Charlotte Mary Bolton."

"And I'm Rose. Hello!"

Pete groaned. "Even better. That's the name of my dog. Still, at least I have the catering staff on my side."

"I knew you weren't a traitor," Rose told him quietly but still could be heard in the equally silent van.

"Why's that then?"

Rose glanced over to the Doctor and Charlotte- the latter holding onto a handle above her head. The Doctor looks at her stony while she turns back to Pete.

After a moment's silence, she said, "I just did."

"They took my wife."

"She might still be alive," Rose countered, yet uncertain.

With a groan, he shook his head. "That's even worse. 'Cause that's what Lumic does. He takes the living and he turns them into those machines."

"Cybermen," the Doctor told him, everyone now focusing on him. "They're called Cybermen. And I'd take those ear pods off if I were you." Taking off his ear pods, Pete hands them over to the Doctor.

"You never know. Lumic could be listening." With the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor easily disabled the ear pods. "But he's overreached himself. He's still a businessman. All we need to do is get to the city and inform the authorities. Because I promise you, this ends tonight."

Soon later, the streets are overcrowded. On the streets, people walk like zombies... marching in the same direction. With how crowded the streets were, they were forced to leave the van and continue their journey on foot.

Jake, like the rest, watched the people walk mindlessly. "What the hell..."

"What's going on?" asked Rose.

Charlotte notices the ear pods blinking blue. "Lumic. He's taken control of them through the ear pods."

Rose walked up to one of them and put her hands up to their ear-pods. "Can't we just, I don't know, take them off?"

"Don't!" The Doctor exclaimed, pushing her away from the person. "Cause a brainstorm. Human race. For such an intelligent lot, you aren't half susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it. Easy life."

Charlotte gave him a look. "Gee, thanks," she commented sarcastically.

Opening his mouth, the Doctor was close to saying something. However, Jake called them over from where he was crouched at the end of a wall.

"Hey, come and see," Jake called in a whisper.

They all rushed over, standing behind Jake and Ricky- looking at the scene beyond the wall they hid behind. Not too far in the distance, Charlotte spotted a group of stone-faced people with blinking ear pods being led by a squad of marching Cybermen.

"Where are they all going?" Rose wondered.

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted, keeping his eyes on the people and Cybermen walking past. "Lumic must have a base of operations."

"Battersea," Pete answered, catching their attention. "That's where he was building his prototypes."

"Why's hedoing it?"

Charlotte looked at Pete as he replied. "He's dying. This all started out as a way of prolonging life, of keeping the brain alive. At any cost."

Rose turned to the Doctor and Charlotte, who stand behind her. "The thing is, I've seen Cybermen before, haven't I? The head. Those handle shapes in Van Statten's museum."

Somehow Charlotte could remember that one artifact easily. "Oh, that definitely was part of a Cybermen. Starting off on a world similar to Earth, they moved across the galaxy. But they," she pointed to the Cybermen, "are parallel, starting here."

"What the hell are you on about?" Pete looks at them, strangely.

"Never mind that," Ricky interrupts, standing up from the ground and looking at a row of Cybermen approaching. "Come on, we need to get out of the city. Okay, split up. Mrs. Moore, you look after _that _bloke. Jake, distract them. Go right, I'll go left. We'll meet back at Bridge Street. Move." He and Jake began running in opposite directions.

"I'm going with him," Mickey says to Rose, kissing her before chasing after his double.

Quickly, Mrs. Moore instructed the Tylers, the Doctor, and Charlotte to run down a street when more Cybermen patrols marched their way. As they sprinted down the street, pursued by the Cybermen, the Doctor spots a side street.

"There!" He yells, pointing to the street.

They began running down that side street. To hide from the approaching Cybermen, they sat surrounded by garbage cans. Looking to Rose, Charlotte noticed how she clutched onto Pete's hand. It was utterly silent as the Cybermen start marching near their hiding place.

Despite the jacket she wore, Charlotte felt a chill go up her spine as the Cybermen stopped marching beside the rubbish bins they sat circled in.

The Doctor takes out the sonic screwdriver, transmitting a signal to the group of Cybermen. Then, they began marching further down the side street and Charlotte let go of a breath she didn't know she held.

They all stood up, watching as they got farther and farther away. Once they were far enough, the Doctor whispered faintly, "Go." Leaving the barricade of garbage bins, all of them began running in the opposite direction of the Cybermen.

On Bridge Street, which was completely vacant of anyone or any Cybermen, they waited for Jake, Micky, and Rickey (which Charlotte thought of sadly).

She looks down the street and spotted Jake running up to their group. Being a fast runner, he arrived quickly. "I ran past the river," he filled them in. "You should have seen it. The whole city's on the march. Hundreds of Cybermen all down the Thames."

Coming in the same direction as Jake, Mickey runs toward them alone.

"Here he is!" Exclaimed Jake, noticing the sorrowful look on Mickey's (or was it Ricky's) face. His eyebrows pushed together. "Which one are you?"

Mickey stops in front of Jake. "I'm sorry The Cybermen. He couldn't..."

"Are you Ricky? _Are you Ricky?"_

Rose looked over at Mickey. "Mickey, that's you, isn't it?"

Mickey nodded his head. "Yeah." Saying nothing more, Rose ran up and threw her arms around him. Once letting go, he tries to explain what happened to Jake. "He tried. He was running..."

He turns around, not wanting to look at him.

Mickey moved forward. "There was too many of them."

"Shut it," Jake demanded, his face screwing up in agony.

"There was nothing I could do."

"I said shut it!" He snapped, his eyes turning red. "Don't ever talk about him. You're nothing, you are. Nothing."

The Doctor looks to the side of Jake's head with a frown. "We can mourn him when London is safe. But now, we move on."

While they stand on a small hill in a waste ground, the river divides them from the Battersea Power Station on the opposing bank. Even in the night sky, Charlotte still can see the dark smoke billowing out from the power station.

"The whole of London's been sealed off," said the Doctor, looking to the station, "and the entire population's been taken inside that place. To be converted."

"We've got to get in there and shut it down," responded Rose.

Mickey looked over to her. "How do we do that?"

"Oh, I'll think of something," the Doctor says in response.

Irked slightly, Mickey glances at him. "You're just making this up as you go along!"

"Yup." The Doctor scrunched up his nose. "But I do it brilliantly."

At him, Charlotte gave a quiet snicker.

Later, Mrs. Moore has left the van and joins them. Everyone surrounds her at a picnic table as she has her laptop open on her lap. Charlotte, sitting on Mrs. Moore's right, saw a 3D model of the factory on her computer.

The Doctor looks to the laptop as well, wearing his glasses as he did.

"That's a schematic of the old factory. Look." She clicks and lines appear under the model. "Cooling tunnels underneath the plant. Big enough to walk through."

"We go under there and up into the control center?" Suggested the Doctor.

Mrs. Moore hummed in response.

"There's another way in," Pete added quickly, fetching their attention. "Through the front door. If they've taken Jackie for upgrading, that's how she'll get in..."

Jake looked up at Pete as if he was a lunatic. "We can't just go strolling in!"

"Or we could, with these." Mrs. Moore pulls out some ear pods from her backpack. "Fake ear pods. Dead. No signal."

The Doctor takes two of the ear pods, inspecting them.

She continues, still holding a pair of the ear pods. "But put them on, the Cybermen would mistake you for one of the crowd."

Pete nodded. "Then that's my job." Mrs. Moore handed him a pair of fake ear pods.

"Remember, you can't show _any _emotion," Charlotte instructs him, raising her eyebrows for emphasis. "Any sign will give you away."

Rose looks down at Mrs. Moore. "How many of those you got?"

"Just two sets."

"Okay. If that's the best way of finding Jackie, then I'm coming with you."

On the other side of the picnic table, Charlotte looks over to her miserably... knowing she would find her mum, but not in the way she wants.

"Why does she matter to you?" Pete wondered.

Rose didn't answer his question. "We haven't got time. Doctor, I'm going with him, and that's that."

"No stopping you, is there?" The Doctor commented.

"Nope."

The Doctor smiled, throwing her the ear pods- which she caught easily. "Tell you what... we can take the ear pods at the same time. Give people their minds back so they don't walk into that place like sheep. Jakey-boy?" Leading Jake up the hill, they both stand with a better view of the Battersea.

A moment later, he pats a smiling Jake on the shoulder and rushed back to the park bench.

Charlotte looks up to the Doctor as he held out a hand to her. "Charlotte, would you care to accompany me into the cooling tunnels?"

Smiling, she took his hand. "I do." Charlotte looks to Mrs. Moore. "Would you care to join us?"

"How could I refuse an offer of cooling tunnels?" Mrs. Moore replied.

"We attack on three sides," he began, taking off his glasses. "Above, between, below. We get to the control center, we stop the conversion machines."

"What about me?" Turning to Mickey, they spot him standing forgotten and apart from the group.

Looking at him as well, Charlotte felt terrible. Even she, who understood how underappreciated he is, forgot he was there. Caught up in the Cybermen, he completely slipped her mind.

"Mickey. You can um-"

He cut the Doctor off. "What, stay out of trouble? Be the tin dog? No, those days are over. I'm going with Jake." Mickey went over to stand by Jake.

"I don't need you, idiot." Jake protested, pushing him away.

"I'm not an idiot! You got that?!" He calmed down, still standing in front of Jake. "I'm offering to help."

"Whatever." With Mickey following, Jake began walking away.

For a second, the Doctor only watched as he left. "Mickey?" He turns back around. "Good luck."

"Yeah, you too." Mickey looks over to Rose. "Rose, I'll see you later."

"Yeah, you'd better."

The Doctor continued talking to him, "If we survive this. I'll see you back at the TARDIS."

It took a bit for Mickey to respond. Frowning, Charlotte recalled the events to occur later that night. As much as she disliked it, she knew it had to happen.

"That's a promise," he responded, walking away with a small smile. After taking a few steps forward, he turned back around as Rose and the Doctor hugged. His smile fades away.

About to turn back around, he glanced at Charlotte, who stares off at him with an intense expression. Raising her hand for a mock two-finger salute, he returned with a four-fingered one for her. A second later, he began catching up with Jake.

"Good luck," the Doctor whispered to Rose.

Grinning, she left their hug to be met with Charlotte... who, despite knowing she'd be fine without it, decided to give her a quick brief on being careful. However, she was cut short as Rose quickly hugged her (before letting go just as speedily).

Mrs. Moore was the first one to reach the floor of the cooling tunnels, followed by Charlotte, and then the Doctor after skipping the last few bars. Looking around the tunnel, Charlotte found it was terribly difficult to see where they were in the chilly cooling tunnels.

"It's freezing down here," commented Mrs. Moore.

Beside Charlotte, the Doctor looks around. "Any sign of a light switch?"

Glancing around, Charlotte could hardly see anything ahead of her. "Can't even see my hands..."

"I've got these," Mrs. Moore pulled out three headbands with a torch on each out of her bag. "A device for every occasion." She handed one to both of them, then she quickly put her's on and Charlotte her's quickly after.

The Doctor, instead of putting it on, looks at it making an "Ooh" sound.

"Put it on," Mrs. Moore said to him.

Slipping it on, the Doctor looks to Mrs. Moore's backpack. "Haven't got a hotdog in there, have you? I'm starving."

Charlotte held back an eye roll.

Mrs. Moore laughs. "Of all the things to wish for. That's mechanically recovered meat."

"I know," the Doctor admitted. "It's the Cybermen of food, but it's tasty."

Charlotte's nose wrinkled. She's never liked hotdogs. "They're disgusting." Twisting the torch on her forehead, it lit up.

Mrs. Moore changed the subject. "A proper torch as well." Putting her hands in her bag she handed them both a normal hand-held torch.

Before any of them turn on our torch's light, the Doctor said, "Let's see where we are."

Turning on the torches, they were met with Cybermen standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the left side of the tunnel.

"Already converted, just paralyzed. Come on."

Hesitantly, Charlotte followed behind the Doctor past a few Cybermen, monitoring them like a guard as she walked past with her torch directed at them.

He taps on one of the Cybermen's face, receiving no reaction. "Let's go slowly. Keep an eye out for trip systems."

Eerie and formidable, the frozen Cybermen kept Charlotte's eyes wide open as she walks down the tunnel behind the Doctor and in front of Mrs. Moore.

After a minute of the silent journey through the tunnel, the Doctor, keeping his eye out for any trip systems with the torch, asks Mrs. Moore, "How did you get into this, then, rattling along with the Preachers?"

"Oh, I used to be ordinary." She began. "Worked at Cybus Industries, nine to five, till one day, I find something I'm not supposed to. A file on the mainframe. All I did was read it. Then suddenly I've got men with guns knocking in the middle of the night."

Charlotte looks back, giving her an empathetic glance.

"Life on the run. Then I found the Preachers. They needed a techie, so I... I just sat down and taught myself everything."

"What about Mr. Moore?"

"Well, he's not called Moore." She revealed to him, "I got that from a book, Mrs. Moore. It's safer not to use real names. But he thinks I'm dead. It was the only way to keep him safe." She paused for a split second. "Him and the kids. What about you two? Got any family, or?"

"Yeah," Charlotte answered. "But they're a long way away."

Before Mrs. Moore could question Charlotte any further, the Doctor interrupted. "Oh, who needs family? I've got the whole world on my shoulders." He looks back at her as they walk. "Go on, then. What's your real name?"

"Angela Price," she answered. "Don't tell a soul."

"Our lips are sealed," promised Charlotte, looking to the side of the Doctor's face, as he still walks in front of her. "Right, Doctor?"

He turned around. "Not a word." The group turns a corner to see even more Cybermen standing frozen on the left side.

Walking down, it wasn't long until Charlotte and Mrs. Moore spotted a Cyberman's right arm move slightly.

Mrs. Moore kept her torch on the arm, with both of their eyes glued on it. "Doctor? Did that one just move?"

"It's just the torchlight." He denied. "Keep going, come on."

Right after he says that a Cyberman visibly turned in front of him.

"They're waking up. Run!" Grabbing onto Charlotte's hand and with Mrs. Moore running close behind, they sprinted along the row of the waking Cybermen.

Charlotte hears the Cybermen behind them move into position- forward, facing them. She swerves around a Cyberman's reaching hand. Not too far ahead of them was a ladder, and once they reached it, they immediately started to climb up.

As they still hear the Cybermen's metal feet clomping closer and closer, the Doctor pulled the sonic screwdriver out to unlock the trapdoor above him.

Mrs. Moore, who stood on the ladder below Charlotte, grew impatient with the Doctor as the Cybermen began catching up. "Quick! They're coming!" The first Cybermen reached the ladder as Moore speaks. "Open it! Open it!"

"Hurry up!" Charlotte yelled up to him frantically. Finally, he opens the trapdoor.

"Get up! Quick! Quick!" Mrs. Moore yells to the two above her.

The Doctor quickly scrambles out of the trapdoor, and as quick as she could, Charlotte climbed up and out behind him. Finally, it was Mrs. Moore's turn.

"Come on! Come on!" The Doctor urges her on, seeing a Cybermen climbing the ladder closely behind.

Soon, she left the ladder and comes up through the trapdoors. On the head of the Cyberman, Charlotte closed the trapdoor and the Doctor seals it with the screwdriver.

Her arms still pushed onto the trapdoor, Charlotte laughed nervously as she heaved.

And out of breath, the Doctor says, "Oh, good team, Mrs. Moore."


	9. charlotte and the cybermen II

_Charlotte walks in the rear of their trio._ Looking around nervously for the single Cyberman that would come soon, and stays as silent as the Doctor and Mrs. Moore- who walks in front of her just as cautiously through the metal corridors. The headlights are now off all their heads and returned into Mrs. Moore's backpack.

The wall to their left was blocked off by a railing, and Charlotte notices the Cybus Industries logo periodically stamped onto the wall. As if they'd forget where they were.

Once they came to the end of the blue wall on their right, a Cybermen steps in front of them (causing Charlotte's soul to leave her body for a second).

"You are not upgraded," It states.

"Yeah?" Moore aims a small rod with copper wire wrapped around it at the Cyberman. "Upgrade this!" She throws the rod at the Cyberman, and it sticks to their metal shoulder.

The rod causes it to jolt, sparks began to shooting out like fireworks. The Cyberman's back arches before collapsing to the ground.

"Nice job, Mrs. Moore!" Exclaimed Charlotte with just a hint of a laugh of how easy that was. Her smile fades quickly, _that can't be the only one around, _she remembered.

"What the hell was that thing?" The Doctor asked with his voice much higher.

They move over to where the Cyberman lies on the ground, unmoving. Mrs. Moore stood on the opposing side of Charlotte and the Doctor.

"Electromagnetic bomb." She answered, looking down at the Cyberman. "Takes out computers, I figured it might stop the cyber-suit."

"You figured right." The Doctor pulled the sonic from his pocket and crouched down next to the Cyberman.

Moore and Charlotte followed suit. Squatting down, closer to the head than the Doctor, Charlotte watched closely as he put the sonic against the Cybus logo on the Cyberman's chest.

"Now, let's have a look." He buzzes the sonic around the logo. "Know your enemy. A logo on the front. Lumic's turned them into a brand. Heart of steel, but look."

He removes the logo boss on the chest, causing a putrid smell to erupt from it- reminding Charlotte of the school dissections she used to do. Inside of hole in the chest was string-like flesh. The Doctor pulled some flesh out by his finger, assessing it.

Moore looked at the stringy flesh hanging from his finger. "Is that flesh?"

"Hmm." The Doctor answered. "Central nervous system. Artificially grown then threaded throughout the suit so it responds like a living thing." He shook his hand slightly above the hole, the flesh falling back inside with other bodily tissue. "Oh, but look. Emotional inhibitor." He points to a small electronic block to the side. "Stops them feeling anything."

Moore's eyebrows knit together. "But... why?"

"It's still got a human brain. Imagine its reaction if it could see itself, realize itself inside this thing... they'd go insane."

Nodding, Charlotte finished. "So they take the one thing that makes them human."

The Doctor took a deep breath. "Because they have too."

"Why am I cold?" Asked the Cyberman laying in front of them.

"Oh, my God." Moore gasped. "It's alive. It can feel."

"We broke the inhibitor." He realized, then started apologizing to the Cyberman. Touching its head, he continued apologizing. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

The Cyberman continues. "It's so cold."

"Do you know your name?" Charlotte asks, her heart breaking for every second.

"Ian... Ian James."

Her eyes widened in shock, earlier she wondered if she'd see him while they were in this universe. She was right, but oh so wrong at the same time. _"No," _she whispered under her breath, unbelieving.

"Where's Jessie?" He asked, his robotic voice causing Charlotte to feel nauseous.

Moore bent forward, interested. "Who's Jessie?"

"I got a ring for nothing…" He replies.

Charlotte turned cold. For a second she could hear _her _Ian speaking- the one who would teach her the math behind the universe's work, and she would practice a speech on; no matter what it was on, he'd listen with his dimpled smile.

As she listened to the robotic speech of her fiance, Charlotte knew her Ian and the one laying in front of her weren't far from parallel. It seemed silly how long she pushed away the idea he may have been with someone else. The long holidays away, the common texting to Jessie, and the inviting of his 'ex' to their wedding.

A part of her wants to punch the Cyberman in the metal nose… how could she have been too stubborn to believe he's cheated on her all this time, using her as a puppet to get the best of both worlds?

However, her heart pained as he was still laid dead in the metal suit of a Cyberman.

"I'm cold. I'm so cold."

"It's all right," the Doctor tells him calmly. "You sleep now, Ian." Changing the sonic's settings, he was close to sticking the screwdriver into the chest cavity, but Charlotte gripped his hand- sliding the device into hers.

"It's on the right setting, right?"

_"Charlotte,"_ he protested. While he didn't know why she wanted to do it herself, he knew he doesn't want her to. In his mind, that was the role meant for him (and no one else, if he can help it).

She simply looked him in the eyes. "Just let me do this."

The Doctor nods but still looks to her with a worried glance.

Taking in a breath and letting out a deep exhale, she stuck the sonic screwdriver into the chest cavity. "It'll be fine, Ian, just sleep," she spoke softly as the sonic continues to buzz. But once the buzzing stopped, and Charlotte looked to the emotionless mask, hoping deep down for a reaction, she found herself short of breath.

She gulps down the whimpering, handing the sonic back to the Doctor.

"He didn't die for nothing," Charlotte says, trying to keep her voice as unwavering as she could while looking away from Ian and to the ground underneath her.

"Maybe that's the key…" she began, "the emotional inhibitor. Find the cancellation code behind it, then feed it through the system, into the Cybermen's heads… they'll realize who they are." Charlotte blinks, for a flash it felt as if someone else said that. She brushes it off quickly as something she _somehow _remembered from TV.

"And what happens then?" Asked Moore, her attention driven to the plan.

"I think it would kill them," the Doctor answers grimly. "Could we do that?"

"We've got to." Moore looks at the two of them. "Before they kill everyone else. There's no choice, Doctor. It's got to be done."

While she stands up from the ground, Charlotte and the Doctor's gazes were directed elsewhere- her somber one at the face of the Cyberman and his troubled one at her. They both immediately left their dazes when a Cyberman grabs Moore's shoulder from behind.

Charlotte shot up immediately in shock (she thought the Cyberman would come later). The Cyberman electrocuted Moore and pushed her to the ground soon after.

"No! No, you didn't have to kill her." The Doctor shouted at it lividly.

As the Cyberman spoke, two additional Cyberman marched in from the corridor. As one stands in front of the Doctor, the other stands behind Charlotte… ready to transport them elsewhere in the station. Beginning to lead them away, down the corridor they just came from, she looks back at Ian and Moore.

The Doctor, who looks at the Cybermen disgustingly as they led them away, also sent a last look to Moore as well.

The Cybermen led the Doctor and Charlotte through the Battersea corridors and to the control room. In which are much more Cybermen all facing Rose and Pete (who sit beside the computers).

"We've been captured," he began when they entered the room, "but don't worry, Rose and Pete are still out there. They can rescue us." Charlotte in tow, he groups up with them. "Oh well, never mind. You okay?" He asked Rose.

"Yeah." She answered, standing away from where Pete sat down on a bench. "But they got Jackie."

Charlotte bit the inside of her lip, as much as she wished to have said something earlier, she knew she couldn't have.

"We were too late. Lumic killed her." Pete glanced around as he leaned forward in the chair, his elbows resting on his knees.

"Then where is he, the famous Mister Lumic?" Asks the Doctor to the Cybermen, turning around and looking to all the Cybermen. "Don't we get the chance to meet our Lord and Master?"

One of the Cybermen stands still in their spot. "He has been upgraded," it told the Doctor.

Charlotte stares at the Cyberman with an abhorred look in her eyes. "He's just like you then…" she states.

"No," It denied. "He is superior. The Lumic Unit has been designated Cyber Controller."

All the Cybermen in the room stand to attention as a large metal door, with the Cybus Industries logo built on top of it, slides open.

Pete stands up from his chair, and they all turn to watch as a Cyberman with wires coming out from in between its torso and arm joints rolls up on an upgraded wheelchair. Instead of metal covering the brain from view, Charlotte saw their brain with a light shining in the center.

From the sides of the wheelchair, steam pushed to Lumic's head. "This is The Age of Steel," it announces. "And I am Its Creator."

Not too long after the Lumic Cyberman said that, everyone caught the human screams of terror from in and outside the station. The two Cybermen that stood by at the left and right of Lumic turn to face the walls closest to them, hearing the shrieks.

"That's my friends at work." The Doctor says to the left of Charlotte. "Good boys! Mister Lumic, I think that's a vote for free will." He clicks his tongue with a wink.

Lumic was unaffected in his wheelchair. "I have factories waiting on seven continents. If the ear pods have failed, then the Cybermen will take humanity by force. London has fallen. So shall the world." He continues talking, "I will bring peace to the world. Everlasting peace and unity and uniformity."

"And imagination?" The Doctor questions. Crossing his arms, he leaned forward towards Lumic. "What about that? The one thing that lead you here. Imagination, you're killing it dead!"

"What is your name?" Asked Lumic.

"I'm the Doctor."

"A redundant title. Doctors need not exist. Cybermen never sicken."

"Yeah, but that's it. That's exactly the point!" The Doctor left this spot and stood in front of Lumic.

"Oh, Lumic, you're a clever man... I'd call you a genius, except I'm in the room. But everything you've invented, you did to fight your sickness. And that's brilliant. That is so human. But once you get rid of sickness and mortality, then what's there to strive for, eh? The Cybermen won't advance. You'll just stop. You'll stay like this forever. A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts." The Doctor walked over to look at a Cyberman standing by, then circled back to his previous spot in front of Lumic. "Lacking the one thing that makes this planet so alive. People. Ordinary, stupid, brilliant people."

Behind him, Charlotte smirked.

"You are proud of your emotions."

"Oh, yes."

"Then tell me, Doctor. Have you known grief, and rage, and pain?"

"Yes," He answers. "Yes, I have."

"And they hurt?"

He shook his head. "Oh, yes."

"I could set you free," Lumic suggests. "Would you want that? A life without pain?"

Charlotte leans forward, curious to his answer.

"You might as well kill me."

"Then I take that option," replies Lumic from his wheelchair.

"It's not yours to take," the Doctor says to Lumic, enraged. "You're a Cyber Controller. You don't control me or anything with blood in its heart."

The two Cybermen at Lumic's side turn their attention back to them.

Lumic remains calm. "You have no means of stopping me. I have an army. A species of my own."

The Doctor rubs his hand against his face and starts to pace around the room. "You just don't get it, do you? An army's nothing. Because those ordinary people they're the key."

Noticing him glance at the camera with a flashing red light in the room's corner, Charlotte stood up straighter as she became more confident they'd survive this.

"The most ordinary person could change the world. Some ordinary man or woman, some idiot."

While Rose seemed to catch on, Charlotte grins.

"All it takes is for him to find, say, the right numbers… say the right codes. Say, for example, the code behind the emotional inhibitor. The code right in front of him. 'Cause even an idiot knows how to use computers these days." He looks over to the grinning brunette. "Am I right, Charlotte?"

"Hundred percent!"

Much more confident with her confirmation, the Doctor began pacing around the room again. _"_They know how to get past firewalls and passwords. Knows how to find something encrypted in the Lumic Family Database, under er. What was it, Pete? Binary what?"

"Binary nine," he clarified loud enough for Mickey to hear.

"An idiot could find that code," he continued. "Cancellation code. And he'd keep on typing. Keep on fighting." He looks to the camera from beneath. "Anything to save his friends."

"Your words are irrelevant," Lumic interrupts.

"Yeah, talk too much, that's my problem," he admits. "Lucky I got you that cheap tariff, Rose, for all the chats." He makes a phone gesture back to the camera quickly. "On your phone."

Lumic was still unaffected by the Doctor's words. "You will be deleted."

"Yes. Delete, control, hash. All those lovely buttons. Then, of course, my particular favorite, send. And let's not forget how you seduced all those ordinary people in the first place."

Rose's phone beeps. Mickey successfully sent her the code as a text.

"By making every bit of technology compatible with everything else," he finished besides a computer.

Rose threw him the phone. "It's for you."

He caught it easily. "Like this." He shoved the phone into a docking station. Quickly, the code appears on every computer screen and is received by every Cyberman. Realizing what they've become, all the Cybermen cry out in pain... except for Lumic. Their hands go to their heads in severe pain.

One near Charlotte views itself in a piece of shiny metal on the wall.

"I am so sorry," She apologizes to it. Bolting away, she stands beside Pete and Rose- all ready to run out as soon as possible.

"What have you done?" Lumic questions over the noise of his creation's shrieks.

"I gave them back their souls," the Doctor answers, just as loud. "They can see what you've done, Lumic, and it's killing them!"

As they all rush out of the control room, they can hear Lumic yell _"delete!"_ over the noise.

In the corridor, Charlotte can hear things begin to explode in other areas of the Power Station. Fire was breaking out everywhere, the ground and on fallen objects. To find a way out, the Doctor opens the emergency exit, only to be met by a horde of writhing Cybermen blocking them from entering.

An explosion can be heard, and more fire breaks out. "There's no way out!" The Doctor shouts.

Charlotte shook my head, not believing it for a second. "No, there has to be."

Rose, who has been standing away from the group, was holding her phone up to her ear. She turns to them hurriedly. "It's Mickey," she tells. "He says head for the roof."

At that, they ran to find a way to the roof. Promptly going up a skinny metal staircase, behind Pete (who was the end of their line) fire breaks out.

It wasn't difficult to find their way to the Power Station's roof, but when they did, Lumic's Zeppelin was there to greet them ready to fly away

"Mickey, where'd you learn to fly that thing?!" Rose hollers into the phone.

Charlotte couldn't hear an answer, but followed behind her as she ran up to the Zeppelin.

It was already rather low, and if it were to get any lower- "if it goes any lower, it'll crush us!" She realized. At that, an emergency rope ladder drops from a trapdoor on the belly of the Zeppelin. _That's convenient, _Charlotte thought.

"You've got to be kidding," Pete says once the ladder drops.

"Charlotte, get up!"

With the Doctor keeping the ladder stable, Charlotte climbed up first. Rose was next, and then Pete. The Doctor, the last to climb up, however, climbed on the right edge of it.

The Doctor pauses his climb when he reaches Charlotte. "So, did we finish it?" He asks.

"Not yet," she answered, her heart dropping as she nearly lost her grip when extra weight is added to the rope ladder. Looking down, she noticed the Lumic Cyberman hanging onto the bottom of the ladder.

Seeing this as well, the Doctor gets the screwdriver out. "Rose, give it to Pete!"

She caught the sonic and dropped it down to Pete, who caught the end of it.

"Use it! Hold the button down! Press it against the rope. Just do it!" He yells down to him.

The Lumic Cyberman being climbing up slowly.

Before Pete does so, he says "Jackie Tyler. This is for her!" He puts the sonic against the rope and presses the button. As soon as he does, the sonic emits its blue light causing the rope to give away. The bottom half of the ladder breaks from the top, causing it and a screaming Cyber Lumic to fall into the exploding Power Station below.

Charlotte looked away from site and back to the Doctor. "Now we're done!" She said with a grin over the noise of the Zeppelin's propellers.

The Doctor and Charlotte returned to the powerless TARDIS together. While he seemed to find his way around in the dark easily, she found herself bumping into the railing and jumpseat. Yet she still, somehow, stood beside him as he put the power cell back into the console, causing the TARDIS to light up.

And, like the TARDIS, they both lit up as the ship came back to life.

Charlotte gasped. "Wow…"

The Doctor, with his hair wild and the bow tie he wore only hanging around his neck, beams. "It's great, isn't it."

"Yeah." She turns over to him. "This is only my third time, y' know."

In shock, his eyes widened. "Really? Earliest I've seen you yet."

"Earliest I've seen you, too."

"Oh," the Doctor blurted. "We need to get Rose and Mickey, we don't have long."

Charlotte follows behind him as he leaned out of the TARDIS.

"Rose?" Seeing her with Pete and they both walk out to join their group. "I've only got five minutes of power. We've got to go."

"They could show you," Rose says to Pete.

Pete's head goes from Rose to Charlotte then to the Doctor. "Thank you. For everything."

Rose looks up him sadly. "Dad…"

"Don't," he said to her. "Just, just don't." On that note, Pete walks away from the saddened Rose.

The Doctor looks over at her uncomfortably, scratching the back of his neck. Just before Charlotte was going to say something to her, a voice caught all of their attention.

"Here it is," Mickey calls when he walks over with Jake. In his hands was the Doctor's suit- discarded at the Tylers mansion, unforgotten by its owner. "I found it. Not a crease." Mickey hands the folded suit over to the overjoyed man.

"My suit! Good man." He takes it from him. "Now then," the Doctor began, looking to Jake. "Jake, we've got to run. But one more thing. Mrs. Moore. Her real name was Angela Price. She's got a husband out there, and children. Find them. Tell them how she died saving the world."

"Yeah," Jake agreed. "'Course I will."

"Off we go, then!"

Mickey instead, stays in his spot by Jake. "Er, thing is, I'm staying."

Rose looks at him surprised in her miserable state. "You can't."

"It sort of balances out," he explains. "Because this world lost its Ricky, but there's me. And there's work to be done with all those Cybermen still out there."

Rose wipes away a tear. "But you can't stay."

"Rose, my gran's here." He begs. "She's still alive. My old gran, remember her?"

"Yeah." She tries to hold back tears.

"She needs me," he told her.

"What about me?" Rose asks him. "What if I need you?"

"Yeah, but Rose, you don't," Mickey responded, his voice getting less shaky. "It's just you haven't needed me in a long time." He glimpsed at the Doctor. "We had something a long time ago, but not anymore."

Rose turns to the Doctor. "Well, we'll come back. We can travel anywhere. Come and see you, yeah?"

"We can't," he denied, careful of being rude to her. "I told you, travel between parallel worlds is impossible. We only got here by accident. We, we fell through a crack in time." _Huh._ "When we leave, I've got to close it. We can't ever return."

Mickey stretched his hand towards the Doctor to shake, "Doctor," they both shook hands.

"Take Rose's phone," he said to Mickey, "it's got the code. Get it out there. Stop those factories. And good luck, Mickey the idiot." He patted Mickey's cheek.

"Watch it," he laughs.

The Doctor went back to the TARDIS, while Charlotte began her goodbye to him.

"This is an odd goodbye, first time meeting you." She laughed nervously and patted his shoulder. "Oh." She pulls him into a hug and whispers silently into his ear (so loud only he could hear). _"Won't be the last time you see 'em."_

Pulling away, she sent him a small wink at his shock face. "I'll see you later." She walked away, leaving Rose and Mickey alone, and joined the Doctor in the TARDIS.

"Is she coming?" He asked.

Charlotte nodded. "She will be."

Standing beside the console, his hands shoved deep within his pockets, the Doctor looks over to her. "Do you think, if we ever were to land in your universe, despite it being unlikely, you'd leave?"

Charlotte looks over at him with her face screwed in deep thought. She knows the answer he wanted to hear but as well knew it was untruthful. And, with being a horrid liar, she can never give him that response. She gulps. "Well… it's not going to happen, so I can't give a sure answer…"

He seemed close to asking more but when Rose, sniffling, as she walked in he decided to say nothing at all.

After visiting Jackie, who Rose stayed with a night for a rest after the events, the Doctor and Charlotte found themselves in the TARDIS deciding to rest themselves (or at least she did) as well before returning for Rose.

Back in her horribly blank room, Charlotte stares at her ceiling from under the covers of her bed. With no pictures or posters on her wall to distract her, she found herself condemned to her own head as she stares off into space.

Yet she can't think of anything, despite the blankness she just can't think when she wants to. With a drowsy grumble, after nearly half an hour of lying awake, she tumbled out of bed and sat down on her desk chair. Not having time to look yet, she found herself curious as to what was inside the drawer.

Remembering the difficulty of her dresser, Charlotte opens it slowly and found a drawer nearly as blank as her bedroom- an array of pens rolled around, _Jane Eyre _sat with a thousand different bookmarks shoved into it, and an old book with yellowed pages with only a handwritten name wrote on the brown cover.

_Memories of Charlotte Mary Thomas-Bolton_, it read.

Oddly, up to her past surname, it was written in blocky letters until 'Bolton'... where it was sprawled in scribbles.

She shook it off as no big deal. Grabbing the book with both hands, afraid it'll fall apart, she laid it on her lap. Opening to the first page, it surprised her to see pictures tapped to the yellow page, but all four were the same blur with a date written below fogged out. Turning to the next page, it was the same thing (and the one after that).

Charlotte believed it may be because they're from her future. And seeing empty pages beyond suspects the farther ahead she goes his timeline, the more pages filled.

Sighing, disappointed in only finding blurry photos, pens, and a book inside the drawer, she set the album back inside it.

Falling back in bed, she continued having a hard time falling asleep. Her head felt like an empty apartment in a large city… with so much being heard but unable to distinguish the sounds separately. Unable to tell the specific car or the exact conversation of people walking past. Sometimes an ambulance would air its siren, but it'd be gone just as quickly.

Soon, Charlotte fell asleep.


	10. the pictures on the wall

**_Charlotte stayed with the Doctor and Rose for five days in total. _**One of the days, they went to the planet Solspir and Charlotte found herself in love with the beachside sunset. However, on the fifth day, Charlotte disappeared in the middle of breakfast with Jane Austen. How embarrassing!

But, now, Charlotte stood in her nice pair of navy trousers and loose, white long-sleeved blouse on a waste ground. In front of her, stood a caught off guard Clara Oswald staring at her.

"Oh, sorry," Charlotte apologized to her, taking a step backward. Turning around, she sees the Doctor- in his twelfth regeneration this time, attempting to get inside of a much smaller TARDIS.

From where she stood, Clara called to him, "Charlotte's here, Doctor."

The Doctor looks above the TARDIS and in their direction. "Oh, that's good." He stood there for a second silently before returning to getting back inside the TARDIS.

Clara looked over at Charlotte. "Care to join me in looking around?"

Remembering what would soon happen to the TARDIS, she shook her head. "Sure..."

The two walk past the TARDIS and beyond the train shed. Eventually, they walk down an underpass. At the top of the steps stood a community payback group in front of a wall covered with graffiti. Beside the steps, a shrine consisting of flowers and pictures caught both of their eyes.

Followed by Clara, Charlotte crouched down for a better look at the shrine.

A man in the community service group looked down at them. "Cheer up, love. Might never happen."

"Have some respect," Charlotte heard one of the others say back to him, "they're grieving."

"Oh, sorry, love. I didn't mean nothing by it."

After standing up from their spots, they began walking through the underpass. Charlotte looks around at the paintings of the people with their backs turned. In all, there must be close to eight in total. Her breath hitched, knowing how these 'paintings' are actual people...

Behind them, a pair of quick footsteps came down the stairs. Rigsy, a young dark-skinned man in a bright yellow vest and a baseball cap, approached them. "Sorry about them," he apologizes, and the two stopped walking to listen. "They're idiots."

"That's all right, don't worry," Clara responds. "I've had worse."

"I've lost some, too," Rigsy reveals, glancing at the back of a woman in a yellow blazer. "My Aunt Karina. Deaf as a post. Didn't really know her that well but she's still gone. Is your one in the mural?"

Charlotte shook her head with a frown. "Oh, no. We're just visiting."

"I'm sure they'll get round to it at some point." Rigsy paused, walking away from his aunt's part of the mural and stood in front of Clara and her. "I'm not really with that lot out there. I just have to do this community service thing. I just do graffiti. Not anything, you know, murdery or..."

Clara gave him a dry laugh. "So, er, what's all this about? What's happened to all these people?" Walking to one on the side, she inspects the pictures on the wall.

"You mean you don't know?" He responds quickly, shocked.

With an attempted serious look, Charlotte said to him, "We are going to need you to tell us what you know."

Rigsy explains, as quick as he could, how people have gone missing all over the estate, and how an unknown artist has been painting the missing's murals in the tunnel. With a single look sent between each other, Clara and Charlotte say their goodbyes to Rigsy and began heading back to the TARDIS.

As they get closer to the TARDIS, Clara pulls her phone from her coat pocket and dials the Doctor's number. Once the call is picked up, she holds the phone out so both can hear him as they get closer.

"Hey, we think we've found something," she tells him, "people are missing all over the estate."

"Can be a connection, right?"

He pauses in thought. _"Could be."_

They arrived in the waste ground, only to see no TARDIS. Unsurprisingly, Charlotte couldn't find the TARDIS even when she craned her neck. While Clara looks around confused, the other snickered under her breath.

"And where are you?" Clara asked into the phone.

_"Exactly where I was."_

"No, you're not. I'm here and I can't see-" Clara, with Charlotte close behind, passed by a wheelbarrow, and right in front of it was a six-inch tall TARDIS to greet them.

"Oh." At the sight, she laughed.

_"Yes. Oh."_

Along with Charlotte, she continued to look down at the miniature TARDIS with a wide grin. "Oh, my God, that is so adorable. Are you in there?"

_"Yes, I am," _the Doctor responds, _"and, no, it's not adorable. It's very, very serious."_

"So is this more shrink ray stuff? Are you tiny in there?"

_"No. I'm exactly the same size. It's merely the exterior dimensions that have changed." _

If it weren't as serious, and she had a camera phone, Charlotte would've taken a video as the Doctor opened the TARDIS's tiny doors. His face took up much of the doorway which caused both of them to riot into laughter. Clara slid her phone back in her pocket.

"Stop laughing," the Doctor demanded. "This is serious."

"Well, we can't help it, huh?" Charlotte responded with a quirk of her brow. "You and your big face."

Clara agrees with a nod. "How are you going to get out?"

"Well, plainly I can't. Something nearby is leeching all the external dimensions."

"Aliens?" She wonders aloud.

"Possibly," he was quick to change his answer, "oh, who am I kidding? Probably. Sensors are down and I can't risk taking off with it in this state. Charlotte, I need you to pick up the TARDIS. Carefully."

Standing up at the same time as Clara, Charlotte held the TARDIS out at arm's length with both hands.

"It should be possible," he continues, "I've adjusted the relative gravity."

"You mean you've made it lighter," Clara guessed with how easy it seemed to hold.

"Clara, it's always lighter." From the outside, they see the minuscule Doctor walk over to the console. "If the TARDIS was to land with its true weight, it would fracture the surface of the Earth."

"Be a way to go..." muttered Charlotte, unheard.

"Yeah, maybe a story for another time," Clara replied. "What now?"

"I've managed to get a rough fix on the source of the dimensional leeching." The Doctor returns to the small doorway. "It's roughly northwest. That way." Reaching his hand outside, which looked ridiculous with the small TARDIS, he moved it northwest like a fish's fin. Then he ran back to the console.

Disturbed, Charlotte said to him, "Please don't do that again."

He returns to the doorway. "Now, listen! You're going to need these." The Doctor passes the psychic paper through.

Keeping a hold on the TARDIS, Charlotte takes the paper and put it into one of her trouser pockets. "Oh, what an honor," she joked. "Is this where I give a speech on holding this responsibility to the highest degree possible?"

"No, it's not." He passed the sonic screwdriver as well.

Taking it from him, she passed the TARDIS to Clara, who sets it in her purse with the doors upwards. The Doctor's hand sticks out with an ear pod, remembering the previous adventure, Charlotte motions Clara to take it.

"And listen, stick this in your ear," he instructs as she grabbed it.

He said something into the ear pod, to which Clara responds with "yes." Quickly after she flinches. "Ow! What just happened?" She pauses while he responds. "What does that mean?" She asks the Doctor.

Charlotte focuses on remembering other details from this episode. "He can see what you see, right?"

"Yep."

Clara spun around the shopping precinct pointing the sonic in the air as she did. Watching from beside her, Charlotte knew it was only obvious to give the screwdriver to her, as she was the Doctor's eyes at the moment. As she spun past the mural of foot and handprints with tire marks, the other woman held her tongue.

"Anything?" She asks Clara and the Doctor.

After he answers the question, Clara responded. "Nothing useful."

She groaned. _Yes, there is! _

Rigsy walks up to where the two brunettes stood in the grass. Behind him, the rest of the community service group were on a meal break- sitting at a table in the shade. "You never did tell me your names," he comments.

"Charlotte Mary Bolton." She sent him a tight smile.

"I'm, er..." Clara started. "I'm the Doctor." Charlotte smirked as she swished the sonic around. "Doctor Oswald. But you can call me Clara."

"I'm Rigsy. So, er, what are you a doctor of?"

A part of Charlotte wanted to use the Doctor's line, _'of lies.' _She didn't, though.

As she continued, Clara had a twinkle in her eyes. "Well, I'm usually quite vague about that. I think I just picked the title because it makes me sound important."

Somehow, Charlotte could picture the Doctor's dumfounded expression right now.

"What are you exactly?" Rigsy questions her. "You don't smell like police but that's some pretty cool gear you got there." He pointed to his ear. "You like a spy or something?"

In front of him, Charlotte held back an eye roll at the question. "Very bright," mumbled she.

Most of the time, you can tell if someone hums a 'yes' or 'no', but when Clara hummed in response to Rigsy, Charlotte couldn't understand how she used it.

The three (four, including the man in Clara's purse) of them crowd in front of the front door of a flat. Across the entrance, the Police had crossed it off with tape.

"He was the last one to go missing," Rigsy explains as he tears the police tape from the door- which Charlotte felt guilty for, but knows they'll have a quick getaway later if need be.

Rigsy walks into the flat first, then the two women go after him. "And when he disappeared all the doors and windows were locked from the inside," he unveils as they walk out of the small area separating the doorway from the living room.

Charlotte turns to the left to see a 'wall decoration' placed on the wall behind a bookcase of CDs. The odd decoration looked different from typical wall decorations she's seen, as it looks like a cracked sandy surface. While she knows it has to be a part of the victim, it was harder to pinpoint what it's supposed to be.

"Yeah, doesn't everyone?" Clara interrupts. For a single second, Charlotte looks to her strangely then remembers how she was talking to the Doctor.

Rigsy, standing a few feet behind her, and didn't know, turns when he hears Clara. "What?"

"Huh?" Clara's eyebrows scrunched up, then unknit when she realized why he was confused. "Oh, sorry. I'm talking to somebody else. He's listening in. Doctor, Rigsy, Rigsy, the Doctor."

"Another Doctor?"

"Uh-huh," responds Charlotte. "He goes by _the _Doctor, though."

Around the living room, Clara began scanning with the sonic. From another person's flat, Charlotte can hear two people speaking loudly- almost yelling over their television. As Clara continues using the sonic screwdriver to scan the room Rigsy talks.

"I think this is great that people are finally looking into this," he tells. "The police weren't doing anything. They never do on this estate. People were thinking that... no one was listening. That no one cares. So, yeah, I think it's great what you're doing."

Looking away from the mural, Charlotte turned to Clara. "Anything?"

"Nope." She paused, listening to the Doctor. Whispering, she said, "Yeah, well, I think he could still be useful."

Moving a step closer to her, Charlotte eavesdropped. Meanwhile, Rigsy looks around the living room.

"Okay, fine. And all those other missing people, I suppose you know where they lived."

"He could still be in the room."

With her mouth wide open, and her slender eyes growing by ten-times, Charlotte turns to Rigsy. "Pardon?"

"Sorry, nothing. I was just thinking out loud," he explains with a small chuckle. "It's like one of those locked room things you get in books."

In front of a mirror resting above a mantelpiece on the right side of the room, Clara looks at herself as Rigsy continued.

"It's always something weird, like, he's still in the room or something. Do you want to go and check out another flat?"

Clara is still looking at the mirror. "Oh, really?" She listens to the Doctor, probably. "How would I scare him off?" She buzzed the sonic in the direction of the mirror and then continues scanning the mantlepiece.

Rigsy walks past Charlotte and looks at the cracked sandy-colored thing on the wall. "Maybe he's lost in the desert or something."

"Okay, right." Clara quits scanning the mantelpiece below the mirror and groups with them in front of the mural, beginning to ask the Doctor questions.

Meanwhile, the other brunette drew lines across the cracks in the mural- recalling how this adventure ends.

"Shrink ray?" She asks the Doctor. "Could it be a shrink ray, Charlotte?"

"Oh, uh-"

Rigsy looks at Clara skeptically. "Sorry, did you just say shrink ray?"

Focusing on him, she ignores his question. "What if he is still in this room like you said, only tiny?" Between them, she spaces her thumb and pointer finger out to make a point. "You know, like underneath the sofa or something." She leaves the bookcase of CDs and bends down to the height of the coffee table, looking under it for a shrunk guy.

Glancing at her as well, Charlotte doesn't blame Rigsy for looking at Clara oddly. Backing up to the doorway, he says, "Okay. So, er, my lunch break's nearly up. This... this has been, er, interesting."

Promptly, Clara stood up, but Charlotte blocks her from going any closer to the door- and looks through her eyes and at the Doctor's.

"Open the TARDIS doors," she demanded him, hoping he'll be looking at the monitor as she did so.

"Look, you want him to stay or not?" Clara fires back to the Doctor as she rushes to the mantle. Taking the small police box out from her purse, she places it on the mantle. "Rigsy," she calls to him, "come here. Meet the Doctor."

The Doctor, instead of standing right next to the doors like last time, is standing by the console when the doors open. Rigsy walks back to where they stood, bending down to see the Doctor with wide eyes.

"So, what do you think?" Clara asks the Doctor. "Tiny man idea."

"Yes, it's a lovely thought. Which is why I set the sonic to scan for that as soon as we entered. Pleased to meet you." He waves at Rigsy, who gets a load of the little yet big blue box on the other side of Clara.

"And you didn't tell us?" Raising her eyebrows, Charlotte asked him.

"Well," he starts, "he might have been squashed under a policeman's shoe by now."

"Unbelievable."

"For all we know, he could've."

Rigsy still looks in the box oddly. "It's bigger... on the inside."

Leaving the group, Clara inspects the wall with the mural.

"Do you know, I don't think that statement's ever been truer." The Doctor added, looking around the TARDIS.

"What are you? Like, aliens, or something?"

Charlotte shook her head. "No. He is." She sloppily pointed a finger to the Doctor. "Clara and I are human."

A quick sizzle is heard, and the TARDIS alarms air accompanied by red lights blinking in the console room. While she does look around in alarm, Charlotte was not surprised.

The others glanced around for the perpetrator too. "Doctor? Doctor, did you hear that?" Clara asks him as she directs the sonic towards the sitting area- aware of something being there.

"Yes. Whatever it was, it just drained a massive amount of energy from inside the TARDIS."

In her frantic state of mind, Charlotte was too quick to ask "Could you find out what it is?"

"Don't _you _know?" Clara questioned her once she finished her question, setting the sonic to her side as she gave the other a baffled look.

"I don't know what they're called! That's the least of our problems, now. We need to leave."

On cue, the Doctor slams the TARDIS doors shut. And as quickly as possible, Clara sets the blue box back into her purse. However, Rigsy was stuck to the ground next to the hall leading to the door.

"Okay. Go. Rigsy, this is where we run. Stick with us," Clara tells him. Then, as fast as they could sprint, they left the flat- Rigsy slamming the door behind them.

After learning of more names of the people who've disappeared, they decided to take another trip to where one of them lived. Starting with John Heath. For some odd reason, there was a silent unanimous decision to have Charlotte do all the talking.

"MI5?" The policewoman questions as she looks down at the psychic paper Charlotte handed to her previously, leading them into his lounge area.

She shook her head. "Yes, miss. You see this is a peculiar case, don't you think?"

The policewoman nods. "Well, you've come to the right place, ma'am. First reported disappearance, a Mister Heath. It's not on the estate, but it's exactly the same MO as the rest." The psychic paper was handed back.

"Really, now?"

"My shrink ray theory?" Clara whispers so low the policewoman can't hear. "I thought you were already scanning for that."

"It's like they vanished," she tells Charlotte.

Even with little to chat on, she tried to keep the conversation flowing. "Maybe they did. Maybe they just disappeared. What is your name, Miss?"

"Raina Forrest, ma'am."

Clara continues to whisper to the Doctor. "Doctor? What are you doing?" She pauses while the two in front of her spoke about Heath (he apparently worked at the local secondary school as a Physics teacher).

"What do you mean, they're in the-" she pulls a lump hammer handed from the Doctor.

"His nephews have nothing that can help. We haven't done as much as we could, we have no suspects, and the top brass hopes if they ignore this it'll all just fade away." Forrest says all of this so fast, both her and Charlotte almost didn't realize Clara with the lump hammer is standing next to her.

"Apparently they're in the walls."

Rigsy was the first to slam the hammer into the wall, once he slams the hammer into the plasterwork the first time he hands it over to Clara.

Forrest's phone rings behind them and she puts it against her ear. "PC Forrest. Yes, sir. MI5, sir." She leaves the room to continue the conversation in another part of the home.

"So, you and that bloke in a box," starts Rigsy. "You all do this sort of stuff a lot?"

"Oh, well, he's usually out of the box. But, yep." Clara hands the hammer to Charlotte.

"So how'd you get this gig? You study science, or aliens, or something?"

Both of the women laughed. "Nope. I worked in a shopping mall in Kansas before this." Charlotte held the hammer, ready to swing. "Philosophy major." Harshly, she hit the hammer against the wall.

"Well, it's kind of a more of a right place, right time or wrong place, wrong time depending on how he's behaving."

Charlotte smiled at the joke as she hit the hammer against the wall again, causing the crater to deepen further.

"Ma'am, there's something in here, I think!" PC Forrest calls from the room she just went to for the phone. Just after Charlotte hit the wall once again, a scream of terror was heard.

Dropping the hammer, she follows behind Clara and Rigsy to the room. However, the only sign Forrest was there is a leftover torch laying on the ground.

"PC Forrest? Hello? Hello?" No response is heard from Clara's hollers.

There is a mural on the wall to the right of the door of red symmetrical lines forming a two-dimensional nervous system spread on the wall. Seeing this, Charlotte's nose wrinkles- _disgusting._

"Doctor, she's gone." Clara picks up the dropped torch, looking at it for a second, then handing it to Charlotte- who eyes it sadly, before giving it to Clara to set in her purse

The brunette she gave it to faces away from the mural, then turns back to it- her eye's narrowing as it all began to click.

_C' mon, _thought Charlotte, _c' mon._

"Her nervous system."

She gave a brief nod. "Yep."

"What? Why?" Wonders Clara.

While the Doctor answers her, all of them hear the door close with a sharp sizzle- similar to the one given earlier in the first flat. Looking over at it, Charlotte eaisly notices how the door handle was seemingly _painted on to _the door.

"Doctor," Clara urgently said, staring at the sight. "The handle, they've flattened the handle."

The sofa and its cushions flattened too, losing its three-dimension, and looking as if it were painted on the ground and the bottom half of the wall.

"What happens if they touch us?" Rigsy frantically asks while a chair flattens in the room's corner.

"Let's not find out." Charlotte gulps, going over to a hanging chair. To stay away from the creature, Rigsy sits inside it while Clara and Charlotte balance on the edge (holding onto its chain).

"They can't jump, can they?"

"No!" Shouted Charlotte as they all weighed down the hanging chair, and saw the thing move around the room.

Clara's phone rings as they began to try and swing out of the room and through the window. She uses one hand to hold the sonic the other to hold onto the chain and presses the mobile phone against her ear.

"Hey, you," she says into the phone. "Just a little. Sorry, Danny. I think lunch is er, a bust."

The Thing is causing the carpet to wobble as it slithers closer beneath the swing. The fireplace beside the mantelpiece wobbles too as more of them crawl over it and slither up the walls.

Rigsy watched as they did in utter terror. "Look! Look! They're climbing the walls."

"Oh, shit."

"Er, that's just a guy and his cousin on community support and I'm helping find their auntie," she lies into the phone. She helps swing the chair to the bay window straight ahead. The Thing starts crawling across the ceiling.

"Er, yeah, there was a thing, er a thing." She brought the hand holding the sonic behind her shoulder.

Knowing her trouble, Charlotte grabs the sonic from Clara's hand. As the Thing drew closer and closer to where the chain hangs above them she gets the chair's swinging rhythm.

"No, no, no, I'm fine!"

Charlotte, knowing exactly when to, easily buzzed the sonic at the root of the chain. Screaming, they all crashed through the bay window with the hanging chair and a chunk of ceiling left untouched by the creature and into Mr. Heath's front garden.

Standing up from his bed of petunias, Charlotte grabs the sonic screwdriver. On her right hand, she noticed a small scar left by the glass but pays no more attention to it. Rigsy, on the other hand, had trouble getting out of the circular chair.

"Danny?" Clara calls into the phone. "Oh not much, just some nonsense," she lies again. "Tell you later. Love you!"

Walking down the subway, both Rigsy and Charlotte were silent as Clara had a conversation with the Doctor. "Sorry, what? What was that?" She said to him. "Yeah? Well, I thought it was pretty weak myself."

From behind, Charlotte looks at her worried. He must've found out she's been lying, now. Then again, she couldn't have thought she could keep the secret forever.

The two continued to talk through the ear pods. "Well, he is." After walking a few feet, she sighs. "Doctor." They walked a little more. "Well, there you go."

They walked through the subway with hardly any more communication. At one point, near the tunnel with the memorials from earlier, Clara stops- putting a hand to the ear pod. "Ah. Doctor, you're breaking up a bit." She paused. "No, really, you are. I can't hear you."

Charlotte takes out the sonic, that she pocketed after smashing through the window, and hands it to her. First, though, Clara takes the earpiece from her ear then took the sonic and began to buzz at the pod.

While Clara was distracted by using the screwdriver on the earpiece, Charlotte looks down the tunnel to spy the same community service group about to paint over the 'murals.' Rigsy tries to stop them but was clearly unsuccessful.

"Does it even still count as lying if you're doing for someone's own good?" Clara wonders aloud as she continues using the sonic on the ear-piece- still oblivious to what the pictures on the wall are. "Well, like, technically their own good."

Arms crossed, Charlotte nodded. "Yes. Lying is lying- there's just a lot of grey areas."

"It's a memorial!" Rigsy exclaimed to the leader of the group. He grabs the paintbrush from one of the men about to paint over a person and throws it elsewhere. "What are you doing?" He says to them.

From Clara's purse sprouted the Doctor's hand- nudging her elbow. "The mural. Clara, it's the mural! Over there, look, the mural!" He points down to the tunnel. Looking down it as well, Clara easily understood.

"We've found the missing people, they're in the walls!"

With the newly fixed earpiece, she sticks it into her ear. "What do I do?" Once he answers, she turns to Charlotte. "We act normal and get everyone out. You still have the psychic paper?"

To show, she held it up to her but knew it won't work on their leader. Despite that, she walked up with Clara using as much confidence she could muster.

"They're very realistic," says Clara to Rigsy. "Who painted them?"

"I don't know," Rigsy answers. "A local artist. Probably a grieving relative."

Clara looks to him with her eyebrows raised. "Did you ever meet them? Or did they just _appear _after people _disappeared?" _

Rigsy's eyes widened, realizing what the really murals are.

An older man, the leader of the group, looked at her with a scowl. "And who are you when you're at home, love?"

Charlotte turns to the old man as her eyes narrow; she wiped out the psychic paper- holding it out to him. "We're from health and safety. The subway isn't safe, and everyone must evacuate now." She remained unsurprised as he gave a blank expression.

Fenton took the paper from her hand, surveying it before handing it back without a change in expression. "This is blank. Try again, sweetheart."

Defeated, she placed the paper back in her pocket.

"What?" Clara blurted out, shocked he got passed the paper.

"Stan," the old man orders one of the men, who stood beside a mural ready to paint over it, "do your job."

Said Stan's paintbrush only touches the wall when he is sucked in with a cry. The wall he was sucked into only showed his back, wearing the yellow vest.

"Stan!" Rigsy shouts.

Unexpectedly, the murals turn around, but they only look like strokes of living paint. Charlotte stood paralyzed in fear as she looked from one of the Things to another.

"What is this? What are they?" One of the community service workers freaks out.

Clara tries to calm the crowd down. "Forget Stan. Your friend's gone."

As the murals turn at them and stretched onto the ground, facing them all, the humans grouped up at the opposite end of the tunnel.

Charlotte looks at the Things with fear. It seemed to her after every corner, every jump forwards or back in time, and every adventure she was met with fear.

Last time, it was the Cybermen... and she was scared out of her mind. Now, it is two-dimensional things with too much mystery surrounding them. She knows what the Cybermen are, they've been on the show enough where you _can't _not know, but what she faces now is harder to understand. They're only in this episode. She doesn't even know their name.

"We need to move," says Clara. "Now." And so, with Charlotte in the middle of their group, they ran away from the tunnel.


	11. the pictures on the wall II

_They all sprinted away from the estate. _Ending the run at a train shed- they tumbled in after each other through the corrugated iron door. Charlotte rushed in with Clara right after into the dark train shed. Unable to see anything, Charlotte uses Forrest's torch (which Clara handed to her).

As Clara scans around with the sonic, further behind the community service group, Charlotte looks around using the torchlight and walks alongside Rigsy.

"Did they follow us?" One of the community service members asks as they walked beside some old train cars. "'Cause I didn't see them follow us. Are we safe?"

She was close to answering, but another man pointed out the obvious. "Are we really hiding from killer graffiti...? This is insane."

"Exactly." Looking around on the train cars, keeping an eye out for the creatures, Charlotte noticed how the torch shakes in her hand while she grew anxious for them to appear.

"And Stan was one of them." George, a young Indian man said with a shake of his head. "Flattened, dead, but coming after us."

The sonic's buzzing ceased. "I'm on it," says Clara to the Doctor. She walks faster up to the group. "George. George, isn't it? Can you watch that area? If you hear anything, anything moves, you shout, okay?"

"He will do no such thing until I get some answers," the old man insisted. He walks away from his spot at the head of the group and marched towards her. "Who are you two?"

Clara passed him, and he follows behind her. Once she passes by Charlotte, she joined her as Fenton still chases after them.

"Impersonating government officials. Trespassing on council property."

In that moment, Charlotte felt a burning rage sent throughout her veins. She forgets how Clara was supposed to have her moment, but all she can think of is putting this infuriating old man in his place. Snapping from her spot behind Clara, she spun at him.

"You want to know?" She asked him in a poisoned, calm tone. "Without us, you would have no chance at all." Fenton looked like he was about to retaliate. "You know I'm right. You'd be plastered on the wall, by now. For Heaven's sake, we are the _one _chance you have. Got it? Good."

With a huff, Charlotte turned back around and continued walking to the end of the train shed. With steps following behind her, she knew the rest of the group followed closely behind.

"Rigsy, how well do you know this area?" Inquires Clara, once they reached the end. "Do you know where that door leads?" She nods her head to an open doorway leading to an even darker area.

"It's the old Brunswick line," he answers with a shrug. "But it's not safe."

"Well, there's safe and there's _safe,_"one of the guys, a bald man named Al adds.

Rigsy nods with a small smile. "Yeah, I know it. I used to go down there all the time."

"Yeah, I'll bet you did. Painting your filth."

Glancing to Fenton, Charlotte ignores him- despite being very irritated with him and his insults.

"Yeah, well, you might be glad he did," Clara tells him. "Those things come in here, that is our only way out."

While Charlotte stayed over with the community service group, making sure they stay on their side, Clara has a conversation with the Doctor by a pile of tires stacked on the ground.

"I just hope I can keep them alive," she said to him, but the other woman couldn't hear from where she stood with the group- tying up her hair.

_"Ah, welcome to my world," _said the Doctor, his Scottish accent clear through the earpiece. _"So, what's next, Doctor Clara?"_

"Lie to them," she responds quickly and easily as if she's already planned it.

_"What?"_

"Lie to them. Give them hope. Tell them they're all going to be fine. Isn't that what you would do?"

_"In a manner of speaking. It's true that people with hope tend to run faster, whereas people who think they're doomed-"_

Clara cut him off, already knowing where he was heading. "Dawdle. End up dead."

_"So that's what I sound like."_

In front of Charlotte, Fenton looks toward Clara mistrustingly. "Who's she talking to?" He asked Al.

While keeping her eyes peeled for any of the Things crawling around, Charlotte responds. "MI5." She receives a grunt from him.

Back with Clara, the Doctor remembers one mural from before. _"Right," _he began, _"here's something that might help you. Do you remember the graffiti from the estate? Footprints, tire treads?"_

"Vaguely," admitted Clara, who paced in the small area away from where the others lounged about. "Charlotte was looking at it a bit."

_"Of course she was, she knew _this_ was coming. I don't think it was graffiti. I think that is how those creatures saw us._ _The impressions we make in two-dimensional space. That was them reaching out, attempting to talk. At which point they moved into flattening and dissection. Trying to understand. Trying to emulate. But here's the big question. Do they know they're hurting us?"_

"So what?" Clara questions, quitting her pacing. "You think this is all one big misunderstanding?"

The Doctor either took her question seriously or had the same thought himself. _"That's a good question,"_ he told her. _"Why don't we ask them?"_

When Clara called for their help, George decided he'll keep watch. Despite Charlotte's pleas for him to stay with the group ("-power in numbers-" she told him), he still insisted he'd be fine. So, reluctantly, she let him go with a worthless 'be careful.'

Under the tannoy speakers sitting atop a post, Rigsy sets a step ladder for Clara.

She quickly climbed up it. "Why can't the TARDIS just translate?" She wonders as she heads up the ladder, reaching up to the speakers with the sonic screwdriver. Turning the sonic on, she buzzes it in the direction of the speakers.

Charlotte wondered the same as her. Maybe it has to do with them being two-dimensional?

Fenton decides they wanted to hear his input on the situation. "This is a bad idea," says he. "What makes this colleague of yours think those monsters even want to talk?"

Clara turns, keeping the sonic buzzing to the speakers as she does so. "He's got a hunch," she tells Fenton. A second after answering his question she asks the Doctor, "Do you really believe that?" The screwdriver flickers, moments after sounds come from the speakers.

Clara puts a hand to her earbud. "Fifty-five? What does that mean?"

"I know what it means," blurts Rigsy. "We all have a number on our jackets," he moves his collar to show a yellow _52_ on the top of his jacket. "Have to sign them out. That was the number on Stan's jacket, the man they flattened in the subway."

"They're gloating," snarled Fenton.

Clara looks down from the stepladder. "It could be an apology, for all we know?"

"Really?" Says Al, who believes it instantly. "That's nice of them..."

"An apology?" Fenton spat. "Are you seriously-"

More sounds come in from the speakers. Immediately Clara shushes him and puts the sonic back up to the speaker. "Twenty-two," she says after the creature quits talking.

Alarmed, Rigsy hastily knew who they were referring to. "That's George."

Charlotte rushes with the group to see George still perfectly fine at the end of the room keeping watch. A second later, Clara joins them- watching while George glances at his number, then at them.

"Looks like your number's up, George," Fenton shouted down at the scared man. "Now they're threatening."

"Maybe," admits Clara. "Or maybe they're showing us they can read."

The old man doesn't believe her. "Oh, grow up," he shot at her. "They're picking targets."

Rigsy rolled his eyes at him. "You'd see it that way, wouldn't you?"

"What do you mean by that?"

Clara tilts her head as she looks down the room. "George?" She calls. No response.

Rigsy snaps at Fenton. "Everyone's out to get you, aren't they?"

Despite the larger problem at hand, Fenton still argues with Rigsy. "In this case, they kind of are."

Charlotte looks at George beside Clara. Oddly, he stood miraculously still. Once Clara side-steps to her left, still facing him, George dissolves into the wall and floor- just like the chairs and couches at Heath's.

It took Clara a second to comprehend George was just turned into killer graffiti before their eyes. Taking in a deep breath, she yelled out "the tunnel!"

Without a thought or concern, everyone, including Fenton, ran into the tunnel and away from the Things.

As they were chased down the darkened tunnel, Charlotte breathing heavily as she ran, she wonders what made _her _the person to be in this situation? She wouldn't even classify herself as her world's biggest fan... other people definitely had a bigger chance of surviving than her. Why was she the one chosen to sprint down this long tunnel and chased by killer graffiti?

It was later when they quit running, seeing no signs at all, they walk down the tunnel with their eyes peeled.

"Doctor, they've got George," Clara informs him as she and Charlotte walk to the closest exit. "What now?" She let out a sigh, looking at her friend. "He's working on it."

With PC Forrest's flashlight directed at the wheel in the middle of the steel door, they clearly saw their third door in a row with a flattened handle. "Just our luck," groaned Charlotte.

"Another flat handle," Clara reports to the Doctor. "They were here. Not now. They've stopped chasing us, I think. It feels like they're cornering us."

They met back up with the group. "That's three exits all blocked by those creatures," Al reminded everyone once they shared their findings.

Worriedly, Charlotte stood in front of Rigsy. "Where's the next exit?"

"The only one I can think of is where the old line joins the new," he tells them, pointing behind himself in the direction. "But it's a fair walk. Getting through that door would be quicker."

"But we can't, can we?"

Rigsy, irritated with Fenton, glances over to where the old man sits on a crate. "I'm just saying."

They began walking down the tunnel- which they all have noticed how it's littered with rubbish and graffiti was sprayed on the walls (Charlotte notices Fenton's face scrunch up at it). With the torch, Charlotte looks around them as they walked down.

Clara caught up to the fast-walker. "So, how far along are you in this?"

The woman, for a second, had her eyebrows scrunched up at her question. "Oh, just about a week."

"Really?" Her eyes grew in shock. "Sorry."

"Eh, it's all right," she assured her. "You were just on the Orient Express, right?"

"Yep. You were there."

Charlotte hums as an unshocked response, continuing to walk down the disused tunnel beside Clara in silence. Further into the walk, they pass by a painting. She took little account into it, until Rigsy- who has been walking in front of them, stands in front of the painting of something exploding out in a circle.

"It's one of mine. Do you like it?"

Briefly, they both pause walking to admire the graffiti. "Yeah, not bad," Clara replies. She continues walking farther away from the group to talk to the Doctor- leaving Rigsy just a little disappointed with her response.

Charlotte stood still in her spot. "You're really good," she complimented him. "Even he has to see that." Nodding her head in Fenton's direction, they notice how he stands around uselessly.

Rigsy smiled brightly. "Thank you."

It wasn't long later when Charlotte stood between the community service trio and Clara. She watched as she aims the de-flattener (given by the Doctor to restore three-dimensions) at the wheel of the door. Like smoke rings, green rays pulse from the de-flattener. For a moment, it worked fine until smoke erupted from the gizmo.

_Bang! _The green rays disappeared, and the wheel remained flat as ever.

Clara hums disappointedly to the blown gadget. "Long way 'round it is."

Knowing it wouldn't be long until Clara returns from her lone search for anything useful, Charlotte stuck with the silent community service group. What felt like an eternity later, she came back frantically trying to get the sonic to the right setting. Seeing her worried expression, Charlotte jumped to her feet.

"Listen!" Says Clara once she rejoins the group. "The Doctor thinks we might be in trouble. He thinks they might be close."

Charlotte turned PC Forrest's torch off and slid it back into her inside jacket pocket, not wanting to hold it when we began running and would rely on other lights.

"Where, exactly?" Fenton questioned.

"I don't know," admits Clara, who is still looking for the correct setting. "He's not sure. He's getting readings all around."

If the other brunette paid more attention to what was happening in the background, she would've noticed a shadow coming down the tunnel. However, she wasn't. She put all her focused attention to trying to remember what will happen next, which unbeknownst to her, was coming straight towards them.

"Oh, that's just great," he quipped after Clara answered him. "Sounds important but means nothing. Can you tell your friend-"

Fenton's face turned grave when a giant hand rushed down the tunnel and towards them and gripped onto an unsuspecting Al. Pulling him from where it came, his screams echo throughout the tunnel. When his screams were no longer audible, lumps come up from the ground. One forms itself to replicate the policewoman.

Fenton was the first to run from the rising victims, with Charlotte following close behind him.

Everyone was already running away when Rigsy shouts "run!"

They stopped at the door with the flattened wheel. Gasping for air, Charlotte looks back and forth from the door to down the tunnel.

"Doctor?" Clara calls. "The door. The handles flattened." His hand pops up from her purse, holding the gizmo from earlier and she takes it quickly. "And it will work this time?"

She aims it at the handle, and just like last time, a stream of green smoke rings come from it but this time the rings seemed to be more stable. As soon as the wheel regains its third dimension again, she turns it off. Rigsy opens the iron door and they all swarm in.

Once everyone was in, Rigsy shut and locked the door. "There's a ladder at the end of this," he points out. "If we get down into the tunnel, we can make it into daylight."

"Hang on!" Shouts Clara. "Hang on." She points the de-flattener to the normal, three-dimensional wheel in the middle of the door. This time, however, it goes flat.

"If it's flat, we're safe now, aren't we?" Asked Fenton.

Rigsy wonders the same. "They can't get through, can they?"

"Just wait for it..." Charlotte warns them... only causing nearly everyone to become confused. Clara, standing near the door, became anxious with her warning. Only a second later, the flattened wheel becomes 3D again.

Knowing exactly who was on the other side, they all bolted away. Charlotte, leading the three others during the run for their lives, hears Clara yelling to the Doctor but over her blood-pumping, running pairs of feet, and the thoughts rushing through her head she didn't hear what she says.

When she heard the rest of their footsteps come to a halt, Charlotte falls back with the rest of the group beside the railing. Recalling what happened from the episode, she immediately looks over the railing to the train tracks down below... not even seeing a dot of blue in the dark.

Her teeth push against each other, getting offended on behalf of her home for the near week. _How dare he think he even had the right to take it from Clara's purse in the first place? Who does he think he is? I see nothing more than an idiot._

"Hello? Doctor?" Clara calls out. She sighed in disappointment when no response was given. "Look, can we please deal with this later? Because we need to move."

Still looking over the railing in the alcove, with her arms crossed, she tried to spot the blue of the TARDIS... but still saw nothing.

"Doctor? Doctor, I dropped you down a hole," Clara says to him as she looks over the railing too. "Where are you? Can't you move the TARDIS?"

Rigsy goes under the small pole keeping us from the ladder. "I wonder what they're like with ladders?"

"No, I mean you move the TARDIS," she continues. "Like Addams Family." For a moment she's silent, then she rushes to put a hand to the earbud. "Doctor? Doctor?"

Charlotte climbs down the ladder first, followed by Fenton and Rigsy. "If the train were coming, they'd be here," she said in a matter of faculty. "So, why aren't they?"

Fenton, who stood farther away, asks, "there's no other way down, right?" He turns around to Rigsy. "Hey! I'm talking to you."

"There is," Rigsy answers. "An old service elevator near the mouth of the tunnel."

Clara climbs down the ladder to where the three stood. "We should go."

"No, no, no," exclaimed Charlotte when she looked in the same direction as Fenton... seeing a white light the shadows jolt around in. And in the opposite direction, she hears a train hurtling up the tracks. "Not another train!"

The train horn blares as it gets closer. Despite wanting to scurry up the ladder like a squirrel as the train continued to charge on the tracks, Charlotte stuck to her spot beside the rails. She knew Clara had a plan, and that's what she did- using the sonic, Clara switches the signals from bright red to an equally bright green.

The driver, seeing the change, puts the breaks on last second and the train screeches to halt. Jumping out of his train, the bald driver with a mustache walks up with his eyebrows pushed against each other. "What's going on?" He asks. "Why the red light?"

Charlotte stepped in front of him, holding out the psychic paper. "MI5. We've got a blockage in the tunnel, I'm afraid." Finding something humorous in her lie, she smiled.

Along with everyone else, the driver looks at the tunnels white light littered with the shadows.

"Can we ram the blockage?" Questions Clara, who is still looking towards it curiously. "The train's empty, isn't it?"

He nods but is still facing towards the light. "Yeah, it's out of service, but you'd need someone to hold the dead man's handle. Won't run without it. Is this official? Because I've always wanted to ram something."

"Can we rig it to drive without that?" She wondered. "Send it with no driver?"

The conversation came to an abrupt end when the train began to move forward. In their unfortunately small group, it was easy to know Rigsy was the one driving the train into the white light. Shouting out his name, Clara jumps onto the moving train.

Charlotte, despite knowing it would be useless for her to jump on too, felt like a coward for not doing it anyway. As the train sped down the tracks, she watched it go down. In spite of her foreknowledge, she has yet to do anything to help... three people have already been taken by the creatures, and she just stood by.

She couldn't help but wonder if one day her cold feet would disappear.

The driver watches the train, astounded. "Did she just _jump_ into a moving train?"

"Yeah, she did... I'm Charlotte Mary Bolton, by the way."

"Bill."

While Charlotte waited patiently for Clara and Rigsy to return, Bill and Fenton stood to the side silently after their own introductions. After a minute of waiting, they grouped up, and Fenton was quick to speak.

"We need to find an exit," states Fenton. With no sign of them, he grew impatient with the waiting.

Charlotte gave him a challenging look from where he stands closest to the ladder. "No. They're coming," she told him, turning back around to the direction the train took off to.

"Then where are they? We'll be dead if we stay here any longer!"

She turns her head, giving him a sharp glare. "If you want to leave, you can. I'm not stopping you, Bill's not stopping you. Just know we won't come running when you get lost or see something move." With a huff of air, she turns her head back around.

He rolls his eyes but doesn't move from his spot.

The fact he wants to leave isn't the only belief of his she despises; she hates how he seems to think if they leave the tunnels the creatures they would no longer be a problem. Still watching for any change, it wasn't much longer when she saw two people running towards them.

With a proud smirk, Charlotte turned to Fenton. "I told you so!"

Rigsy meets them first, with Clara following with a small box held in her hand. Quickly, they explain how the bus has been flattened against the brick wall, which made Bill rather confused, and how they had to find somewhere to safely devise a plan. So, next, the group set off.

Using PC Forrest's torch, Charlotte leads the way down the tunnel. While Fenton fills in Bill at the rear of our group, she opens up a door on the side of the tunnel and walks in with everyone else following behind.

Flicking on the light switch, she realizes they must be in a long unused office. Sitting on top of the desk is a dusty typewriter. In the room's center is a long table with just as much dust and old filing cabinets placed by the door.

While Charlotte turns to lean against the edge of the table, Clara stands in the archway that divides the office area Charlotte stands in from another room. Tapping her earbud, she stares at the cube in her hand.

On the other side of the table, Bill learns more details on what's happening. "They wear your own skin?" He repeated Fenton, dumbfounded.

"I never thought I'd say this," says Fenton.

Bill nods. "This is insane."

"But I think I preferred them when they were flat," he adds, surprising Bill again with more facts on them.

"What do you mean flat?" He questions.

Charlotte quit eavesdropping on them and looked over at Clara- who looks at the cube covered in circular Gallifreyan lost as she whispered to herself. Suddenly, she got an epiphany and turned to the group with a wide grin, setting the TARDIS (the cube she was holding) on top of the desk.

Turning around, facing the table, Charlotte watches as she sets up her brilliant plan.

"Okay, okay, okay. Okay," she starts. "The last thing the Doctor said was that the TARDIS needed energy. He said if it gets energy, he can beat them." Clara grabs and unrolls an ancient advertising poster for Bristol LMR on to the table. Flipping it to the blank side on the back, which is the color of parchment, she uses the TARDIS as a paperweight.

Seeing a few spray cans placed underneath the table, Charlotte grabbed one and began to shake it well. Clara, with her mad grin, noticed quickly how Charlotte unsurprisingly caught the drift of her plan. The brunette threw the can to her, and she caught it easily and began shaking it herself.

"Leave her," Fenton says to Rigsy. "She's lost it." He begins to leave the office.

Rigsy looks to Clara like she was a madwoman. "Are you okay?"

Beaming, she continues shaking the can. "Yeah, are you?"

"I think I will be. What's this?"

"Come on, Graffiti Boy," she chucked the spray can to him. "I've got a commission for you."

He sets the spray can on top of the backward ad. "I'm flattered," says Rigsy. "But I don't think this is exactly the time."

"Oh, okay," Charlotte said with a joking smile. "Guess we'll have to summon what I learned from my second-year art lessons... only if you're not up to the task."

Rigsy picked up the can. "What do you need, exactly?"

Clara sets the TARDIS upon a metal ledge. On the opposite side of the same wall, the spray-painted paper leans against it. Now, though, it was painted to resemble a two-dimensionally locked door. Walking out of the entrance to the side tunnel and climbing up the ladder to an alcove looking down at the painted door, Clara met with the onlooking group.

"You're going to get us killed," whispers Fenton. "This plan's insane."

The plan is to have the Things use their energy on the spray-painted door. The energy will then transfer through the wall and to the TARDIS. At that point, the ship should gain enough dimensional energy to both send the monsters back to their dimension and return to her normal state.

Clara looks up to Fenton from where she is squatted on the floor by the railing. "You want to walk? Walk. You want to stay? Then _shush!"_

Bill, who stood in the back, whisper-yells "they're coming!"

A horde of the things stagger along the track and stand around the door in a group. Charlotte notices one wearing the skin of PC Forrest, which she could only be certain of by the hat. Even when they stood still, it's as if they're glitching- similar to when they were flat, their 3D versions are wobbly too.

Aiming their red energy to the fake wheel and Charlotte got a better look at who's here. She can spot Al and George. Other than that, she has no clue who's who. More and more energy continues to be poured in from the creatures, with nothing happening yet.

"It's not working," accuses Fenton, who continues watching them pour the energy. "You've killed us all."

"This is going to save us?" Wonders Bill. "Pumping energy into the wall?"

"The energy isn't going into it." Charlotte looked around at our group. "It's going _through_ it."

Clara quickly added on, "Rule number one of being the Doctor, use your enemy's power against them." The two women gave each other a fist bump. "They can't restore three dimensions to a door that never existed."

The paper peeled off the wall, flopping forward, the glitching monsters are met with the bold word Charlotte wrote with a black marker. If they could read English, they would have read '_Gotcha_' by now.

Flying mid-air, the miniature TARDIS comes hurtling from the entrance of the side-tunnel it was placed.

"It worked," gasps Clara. "They charged the TARDIS."

Above the tracks, with the same classic sounds, it hurtles down the tunnel. Rushing back, the TARDIS grows larger until it lands full-sized with a _thump _before the glitched people- causing them to be pushed away by the force field emitted by the TARDIS.

Now safe, they climbed down the ladder. Jumping off the second rung, Charlotte stands beside Clara when the Doctor steps out from the TARDIS and looks at the group of the crippled creatures.

"The man that stops the monsters!" continues the Doctor. "I'm sending you back to your own dimension. Who knows? Some of you may survive the trip. And, if you do, remember this. You are not welcome here. This plane is protected! I am the Doctor."

Clara throws him the sonic, and he caught it effortlessly. "And I name you the Boneless!" Pointing it at the force field, he uses it to send pulses of energy. The energy causes the Boneless to squeal in pain before disintegrating.

The trio of time travelers looks at each other with wide grins._ Finally, _thought Charlotte, _after hours of being chased by the Boneless we can relax._

The TARDIS materializes where the journey started, at the Waste Ground. All five of them leave the police box, Rigsy being the last closes the door behind him. Bill looks up at the TARDIS, then gets on his knees and kisses the ground below. Pulling out his phone, Rigsy makes a phone call.

"Hi, Mum," he greets into the phone. "It's me."

Charlotte knew Clara was asking Bill how he was doing, but no matter how hard she tried to hear a ringing in her ears blocked all the sounds out. As the ringing turns into the music of a rainforest, her temples pounded in agony. The chirps of exotic birds and the rustling of leaves drown her.

With a hand at her head, she let out a groan in pain. Soon, she smells the damp scent of Earth combined with vegetation. Leaning against the TARDIS didn't help, as only a moment later she left the waste ground fell through time and space until her feet landed in the damp dirt of the rainforest and her headache was almost completely gone.

She snaps her head around when the rustling of leaves is heard behind her. But it wasn't a wild beast she thought it would be. Standing in the shrubbery, her clothes and face covered in dirt, was an angry Donna. Running in from behind her the Doctor, with his pinstripe suit in such bad condition it made his post-regeneration suit look brand new, gave Charlotte a surprised look- not expecting to meet her in that moment.

"No questions," he told the very confused Charlotte. "Just run."

"What happen-" she was caught off by a stray arrow just missing the Doctor's shoulder and hitting a tree.

_Next up: Midnight_


	12. possessed pinstripes

They weren't in the rainforest for long. But once they were safe inside the TARDIS, Charlotte quickly learned how the Doctor and Donna were held captive by a small village from a thousand years ago for a night until they escaped. When asking Donna why, she couldn't even get it out in between her laughs.

So, she went to the Doctor, who was forced to wear normal clothes for a day while the TARDIS (the Textiles Arriving Really Damaged Improving System) repairs his poor, damaged suit. Somehow, all of his other suits that he found 'suitable' have vanished.

_"That's what you get for keeping the hammer," _Charlotte told him as he complained on his lack of suits. _"_And _leaving her in the _rainforest_... did you see all that bird poop?"_

Embarrassed, it took a while until he told her how he and Donna got arrested... accidentally insulted all of their gods and him steppimg on the toes of their ruler. Charlotte found it absolutely hilarious.

For the next few days, they decided to try and get into the least amount of trouble after the debacle with the indigenous tribe. And somehow they were successful.

As nice as it was, Charlotte found herself growing bored on the third day- which was spent in 50s Hollywood. She loved spending time with the Doctor and Donna, that wasn't life-threatening, but she did miss the running already.

It was the eleventh day she spent away from her universe, the fourth since the chase with the South American tribe, when she sat on the jump seat. With a pocket notepad in her hand, she wrote down notes on each episode. Her foot tapped as the Doctor plays jazz music throughout the console room.

"What are you doing over there?" She asks him, looking up from her notebook from where he stands hunched over the monitor.

While the music hit a crescendo, and it was to the highest volume possible, he had to shout back, "Looking for the next best place to go! You?" He decreased the volume.

"Nothing important."

"Oh, come on... Everything's a little important."

"Well this isn't everything." Charlotte looked back down at her notepad, giving one last look at her Boom Town notes before closing it. Looking back at the Doctor, she saw how he was once again engrossed into the monitor.

She yawns. After yesterday's trip to Hollywood, Charlotte found herself unable to fall asleep. Which allowed her to get eight extra hours of exploring the TARDIS on her own- somehow, she came across a room with just farm animals... she hasn't stopped thinking about it.

The Doctor looks to her from where he stood in front of the monitor. "What about the Sapphire Waterfall?" He suggests.

Tilting her head, she thought that sounded familiar... maybe it was mentioned in an episode as a past travel? "What does it look like?"

"Come here, look."

Jumping off the jumpseat, Charlotte stashes the notepad into the back pocket of her jeans. Looking at the monitor, she sees a picture of a beautiful waterfall made purely of sapphires with a humongous jewel sitting at the top. Down the cliff the sapphire fragments fell into a ravine of crystals.

Charlotte gave an 'ooo' sound at the picture. "That looks fun," she told him. "We should go. Where is it?"

"The planet Midnight."

She turned cold while staring at the picture. That's why it sounds familiar. Because of her, he's going to be stuck in that situation... "Maybe we shouldn't go..."

"903 years old and I've seen many waterfalls but not a sapphire waterfall."

"You're being dramatic. We should just go somewhere else?"

He looked at her confusedly. "Why would we do that? It's the third most beautiful place in the universe."

Charlotte sighs. "Because we should. And we can just go to the first place."

"No, not a chance." He said with a frown, thinking it was a given why they shouldn't. "Too much of a tourist trap, plus I've already been there a decade ago."

As much as she wanted to push for not going, she knew she was already defeated. And if he was going, she was definitely going to follow. "Fine, Sapphire Waterfall it is."

Grateful for her agreement, the Doctor rested a hand on her shoulder while pointing to a spot beside where the waterfall began falling into the ravine. "If I remember correctly, that's where we'll be standing. There's also a spot under the ground-"

"Wow." Charlotte said, pretending to be completely and utterly astounded- causing the Doctor to become even prouder as he didn't see the blank look in her eyes, and his brown eyes narrowed as his smile grew. For the fourth day in a row, he had the honor of showing her something she's never seen before. It was usually a treat for showing her something new once, so he could get used to this.

They ate lunch in the TARDIS while they waited for Donna to stumble out of bed. And when she did, she did not share the same enthusiasm on the Sapphire Waterfall. Watching from her spot at a table, Charlotte gave a worthless wish he'd listen to her. However, as he was distracted by the argument, she did steal some of his chips.

Now, they were only moments from boarding the bus en route to the Waterfall. Knowing both of them, hopefully, will live through this kept Charlotte a bit less frightened. Anxiously, she spun her wristwatch on her left wrist and under the end of her dark grey jacket.

"I said 'no,'" Donna says into the public telephone, which the Doctor held between both his and Charlotte's ears. Donna had insisted on her not going on the four-hour ride to the waterfall, so he agreed to have her stay at the Leisure Palace.

"Sapphire waterfall," the Doctor says into the phone. "It's a waterfall made of sapphires. This enormous jewel, the size of a glacier reaches the Cliffs of Oblivion and then shatters into sapphires at the edge. They fall a hundred thousand feet into a crystal ravine."

"I bet you say that's what you said to-"

"Oh, come on," he interrupts her abruptly, "they're boarding now. It's no fun without you-"

"Hey!" Charlotte exclaims with a roll of her eyes.

He continues talking to Donna through the phone. "Four hours, that's all it takes."

"No, that's four hours there and four hours back. That's like a school trip. I'd rather be sunbathing."

Knowing what will soon happen, Charlotte would too. She spotted a tall, blonde lady boarding the train. Closely behind, the dark-skinned hostess walks on with good posture.

"You be careful," the Doctor warns. "That's Xtonic sunlight."

"Oh, I'm safe," Donna told them. "It says in the brochure this glass is fifteen feet thick."

The Doctor finally lets her stay. "All right, I give up."

Taking the phone from him, Charlotte put it to her ear. "We'll be back for dinner. How 'bout the anti-gravity restaurant?" She suggested. "Not the one with spider waiters," her nose wrinkles at the thought, "the one with bibs."

"That's a date," she initially said. "Well, not a date. Oh, you know what I mean. Oh, get off."

Smiling, she shook her head on the other end of the line. "See you later." She was close to hanging up when she continued to talk.

"Oi," she calls. "And you both be careful, all right?"

"Donna," she began. "We are taking a truck with lots of strangers across a diamond planet," knowing the worst is already cursed upon them Charlotte throws in "what could possibly go wrong?" She hung the phone back up, and was immediately pulled by the hand to board the shuttle.

Once they reached the shuttle, and walked through the aisle between rows of two seats, she let go of his hand. Going into a row close to the front of the bus, Charlotte sat in the seat where there should be a window... instead, it was just the white walls surrounding the bus. The Doctor sat beside her in the aisle seat.

Passengers continued to board as Charlotte spotted the blonde woman in the first row. She couldn't help but stare at the blonde as the hostess helps her. Recalling what will happen soon, her shoulders slumped down- there wasn't anything she could think of that could help. Once again, she can't save someone.

Turning her head, Charlotte gave a quick yawn and began massaging the corners of her eyes.

The Doctor, noticing how tired she was, decided to try and keep her awake for the moment. "Guess how many sapphires fall from the cliff annually."

"I don't know, how many?"

The Doctor is unable to answer the question as the hostess pushes her cart to their row.

"That's the headphones for channel one to thirty-six." She takes some headphones from the cart and gives them to the Doctor, who passes one to Charlotte. "Modern link for 3D video games." She hands two to him two, and he passes the second to her. "Complimentary earplugs." He hands her her's. "Complimentary slippers." He gave her her pair. "Complimentary juice pack and complimentary peanuts." He passes her both containers of peanuts. "I must warn you some products may contain nuts."

"That'll be the peanuts," the Doctor responds.

The hostess tightly smiles. "Enjoy your trip." She moves on to the people behind.

"Oh, we can't wait," he tells her.

"Allons-y!" Slightly embarrassed, Charlotte fell deep into her seat with a sigh.

The hostess, confused, turns back to the Doctor. "I'm sorry?"

"It's French, for 'let's go.'"

She looks at him oddly, her eyebrows scrunching together. "Fascinating." She then moves to the row behind them.

Smiling, he turned back to answer the question from before. "On average, 1,476,230,020 sapphires fall from cliff annually."

Charlotte nodded. "Where'd you learn that?"

He replies quickly. "It says it on the back of the brochure."

After saying "oh," she began to look through the stack of complimentary items on her lap for the earplugs. Yearning for a good nap, and not being able to take one before the trip, she figured she'll take one on the ride. Knowing what's to happen, she figures she'll need one too.

Meanwhile, the Doctor looks at the people sitting behind them. Turning her head ninety degrees, Charlotte sees an older man- Hobbes, she thinks- sitting directly behind her with his younger pupil- Dee Dee- in the aisle seat.

"They call it the Sapphire Waterfall," Hobbes told her as they sat down. "But it's no such thing. Sapphire's an aluminum oxide, but the glacier is just compound silica with iron pigmentation."

Charlotte found the earplugs placed inside of a plastic bag, but waited for the shuttle to begin their journey to take them out. Other than the earplugs and small pouches of peanuts (which she saves in her coat pocket for later), Charlotte sets the other complimentary items on the ground.

"Have you got that pillow for my neck?" Hobbes asked Dee Dee.

Digging through the bag, Dee Dee finds the neck pillow. "Yes, sir."

"And the pills?"

"Yes, all measured out for you," she replies- still searching in her bag.

Hobbes leans over to meet the Doctor and Charlotte. "Hobbes! Professor Winfold Hobbes." He shook hands with the Doctor.

"I'm the Doctor. Hello."

When the professor turned to her, she held out her hand. "Charlotte Mary Bolton." He firmly shook her hand.

"It's my fourteenth time," he said.

"Well..." Charlotte started. With the thoughts that popped up thinking of Midnight, she was confused why you'd want to go that much. "It's only our first."

"And I'm Dee Dee," his pupil introduces herself. "Dee Dee Blasco." She gave a small smile to Charlotte, who returns it.

"Don't bother the couple," Hobbes snaps at her.

Charlotte's narrow eyes glare at Hobbes. "She wasn't being a bother at all, actually." She says with a tight smile. Holding her hand to Dee Dee, they shook hands and she instinctively restated her name. "Charlotte Mary Bolton."

"Yes, I know."

Turning back around, Charlotte reclined back into her chair. Looking back to the blonde woman from before, she saw her glance around before returning to her book. Hearing people talk in the back, she spots a middle-aged couple, a man and woman, sitting on one side of the shuttle while their teenaged son dressed in all black sat as far away from them as he could. She looks away at the same time as the Doctor.

As boarding continues, but no one enters, she silently ate some complimentary peanuts- trying to get rid of some fear running through her veins. This may be one of her favorite episodes, but that didn't stop her from being utterly nervous.

Once boarding is complete, the hostess comes walking down the aisle to the front of the shuttle. "Ladies and gentlemen, and variations thereupon, welcome on board the Crusader Fifty. If you would fasten your seat belts, we'll be leaving any moment."

As instructed, Charlotte stuffed the peanuts back into her jacket and pushed her seatbelt together- giving a click that made her stomach churn.

"Doors." At her word, the doors close and a course of four-lettered words scream in Charlotte's head.

"Shields down." At her command, the windows are shielded.

Charlotte began unwrapping the earplugs, ready to take a nap instead of enduring the long ride.

The hostess continues her announcement. "I'm afraid the view is shielded until we reach the Waterfall Palace. Also, a reminder, Midnight has no air, so please don't touch the exterior door seals. Fire exit at the rear, and should we need to use it, you first." She chuckles a little. "Now I will hand you over to Driver Joe."

She steps away as an animation on the wall-hung television in the front shows their voyage. The Doctor slips on his rectangle glasses as he looks at the television in deep interest.

"Driver Joe at the wheel," a male voice says over the speakers. "There's been a diamond fall at the Winter Witch Canyon, so we'll be taking a slight detour, as you'll see on the map." The original plan, shown by orange tracks, splits up and the red tracks tells them their detour.

"The journey covers five hundred kliks to the Multifaceted Coast." Said Driver Joe. "Duration is estimated at four hours. Thank you for traveling with us, and as they used to say in the olden day, 'wagons roll!'"

Charlotte would be lying if she said she didn't have a puff of laughter at the dumb joke.

The small laughter quickly ceased as the shuttle shakes to life. Before putting the earplugs in, with a serious expression, she turns to the Doctor. "Wake me up if anything happens."

"Of course I will," he told her.

With a nod, she stuffs the earplugs in and lulls her head to the side.

Meanwhile, the hostess introduces what they have for entertainment. "For your entertainment, we have the Music Channel playing retro vids of Earth Classics." Screens drop down from the roof to show a pop music video of a blonde woman from what looks like the 1970's.

"Also, the latest artistic installation from Ludovico Klein." A bright yellow and green holographic image spinning around the shuttle causes Charlotte to open her eyes.

The hostess still continues. "Plus, for the youngsters, a rare treat. The Animation Archives." On the screen previously used for the map, a projection of Betty Boop is played.

Even with the earplugs, Charlotte can hear the horrendous mix of sounds taking over. Placing her fingers over the earplugs she pushes them in a little, trying to have utter silence.

"Four hours of fun time. Enjoy." With scowls sent at her, the hostess moves away from the scene of her crime.

Sky, just as unhappy as the rest of them with the media, glanced up from her book. In her own spot, Charlotte caught the Doctor's attention by twirling her finger to the ceiling and whispering 'sonic.' Getting her hint, he took the screwdriver out. Using one hand to block it from view, he pointed it to the ceiling and used it to turn off the entertainment system.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Charlotte's smirk grew as she reclined into her chair. 'Thank God for the sonic' she thought as she was on the brink of sleep.

"Well, that's a mercy," mumbled Hobbes to Dee Dee.

The hostess came speeding through the aisle, trying to turn the system back on to no avail. "I do apologize, ladies and gentlemen, and variations thereupon. We seem to have a failure of the Entertainment System."

The Doctor feigns disappointment. "Oh."

"But what do we do?" Wonders Val, the mother of the teenaged boy who, at the moment, laid across his row of seats listening to his music.

"We've got four hours of this?" Adds her husband, Biff. "Four hours of sitting here?"

"Tell you what." The Doctor jumps from his seat, giving Charlotte more legroom that she gladly accepted- stretching her legs out on the seat as she rests her head against her seat.

"We'll have to talk to each other instead." The Doctor sent a cheeky smile while the grown adults looked at him in horror.

98 kliks later...

When Charlotte was long since asleep in her row, having not even a dream, the Doctor, Hobbes, and Dee Dee listened to a story starring Val and Biff. However, Sky still sits in the front row, concentrating harder on her book, as the couple's son Jethro couldn't care less about the story.

"So Biff said, 'I'm going swimming,'" Val continues with a grin at the memory.

"Oh, I was already," reminds Biff. "Trunks and everything. Nose plug."

Val talks in between laughs, despite having been there and telling the story many times after. "He had this little nose plug. You should have seen him."

"And I went marching up to the lifeguard," said Biff with a smile from the memory. "And he was a Shamboni. You know, those big foreheads." The Doctor nods along while they laugh.

"Great big forehead," Val says.

"And I said, where's the pool? And he said," together, he and his wife say the next line- as Jethro, having heard the same story a thousand times before mouths it with an eye roll, "the pool is abstract!"

Maniacally, Val laughs. She still talks to them, though. "It wasn't a real pool."

"It was a concept!" Biff continues to laugh with the rest of them.

The Doctor laughs with everyone else. "And you were still wearing a nose plug."

Biff nods. "I was like this," he pinches his nose in a replication of the infamous nose plug. "'Ooo, where's the pool?'"

Nearly everyone burst into laughter at that- which further caused Sky to become more frustrated and Jethro to up the volume of his music. Charlotte, however, was still fast asleep.

150 kliks later...

While the Doctor got drinks with Dee Dee in the galley, speaking about the lost moon of Poosh, Charlotte began to dream. Dream as if she was far away from the shuttle she slept on now, and even farther from anywhere she could easily recognize.

She definitely would be able to recognize Earth, and she knew this place wasn't it. As she, at a much younger age with her small height, ran through a field of unnameable flowers, she felt a heat that has never been matched in her lifetime. Sweat poured down from her face as her breath heaved with every step. Here, she wasn't running for fun nor for exercise. Something was chasing her.

Swung over her shoulder, she noticed how something large in her messenger bag was hitting against her thigh- with that she knew she stole from the person chasing her. Hearing shouts from behind her, she tried to run faster than her legs could carry her.

"Get back here, girl!" He shouted to her.

The field of flowers, that went well above her head, ended and revealed a nomadic tent- similar to a yurt- standing before her. She ran inside, not even thinking of if the owner was there or not.

209 kliks later...

When it came time for lunch, the Doctor, who only took a bottled water, then sat beside Sky as she unwrapped her meal. Unlike the starving Sky, the Doctor found himself still full from the meal he shared with Charlotte earlier that day. Noticing how he seemed to be social with everyone in the shuttle, including the sleeping brunette, who she thought may not have come with him if he was so social, she asked if he came alone.

"No, no," he tells her. "I came with my friend, Charlotte." He nodded his head in her direction. "Our friend, Donna, stayed behind in the Leisure Palace. You?"

"No, it's just me."

The Doctor looks to the seat in front of him, thinking back on his time traveling. "Oh, I've done plenty of that, back in the day," he responds. "Traveling on my own. I loved it."

"And why don't you anymore?" Sky asks him, oddly interested.

"Oh, no reason," says the Doctor, but Sky sees his eyes drift off elsewhere.

"I'm still getting used to traveling alone," Sky tells him, shifting the focus to herself. "I've found myself single rather recently, not by choice."

"What happened?"

As she answered, she began taking the silverware out of the plastic wrap it was in. "Oh, the usual. She needed her own space, as they say. A different galaxy, in fact," she remarks. "I reckon that's enough space, don't you?"

"Yeah," the Doctor answers, taking off the bottle's cap. "I had a friend who went to a different universe."

Sky ignores his comment and opens the box of food and sticks her fork into the meat inside it, holding it up. "Oh, what's this, chicken or beef?"

"May I?" He asks her. She hands him the fork with the meat attached to it. Once biting into it, the Doctor takes quite a bit to decide. "I think it's both." They look to each other, then to the half-eaten combination of meat on the fork in amazed disgust.

251 kliks later...

At 247 kliks Charlotte woke up, and at 251 she sat on the arm of a seat three rows down, watching Hobbes give an illustrated lecture on Midnight. Everyone, even Jethro who paused his music, watches the lecture in interest. In the row in front of her, the Doctor crouches on top of the seat with his head resting in his palm.

"So, this is Midnight," Hobbes tells them, pointing to the diagram on the screen of the sun rays in relation to Midnight. "Do you see, bombarded by the sun. Xtonic rays, raw galvanic radiation. Dee Dee, next slide."

Dee Dee pushes her glasses up her nose, then has the next slide pop onto the screen- which consisted of mainly pie charts and graphs.

"It's my pet project. Actually, I'm the first person to research this. Because, you see, the history is fascinating." Looking at everyone else, he sat down as he continued. "Because there is no history. There's no life in this entire system. There couldn't be. Before the Leisure Palace Company moved in, no one had come here in all eternity! No living thing."

Feeling the plot speeding up, Charlotte found her knee bouncing up and down on the floor of the moving shuttle.

Jethro moves forward in his seat directly behind Charlotte. "But how do you know? I mean, if no one can go outside."

"Oh, his imagination," sighs Val. "Here we go."

"He's got a point, though," said the Doctor, with Charlotte nodding lazily in agreement. She wasn't still tired, but now she was attempting to remember every fact she could about this episode. Maybe she could try to help this time?

"Exactly!" Hobbes agrees, enthusiasm pouring out of him as his hands move as he talks. "We look upon this world through glass, safe inside our metal box. Even the Leisure Palace was lowered down from orbit. And here we are now, crossing Midnight, but never touching it."

The shuttle rattles and comes to a complete stop in its tracks... causing Hobbes' lecture to be cut short and Charlotte feel a shiver run up her spine. From her spot of the chair's arm, she jumps up.

"We've stopped," Val realizes, looking around the shuttle in confusion. "Have we stopped?"

"Are we there?" Biff asks the hostess, who doesn't answer.

"We can't be, it's too soon," says Dee Dee with a shake of her head.

Hobbes goes back to stand by his original seat. "They don't stop. Crusader vehicles never stop."

Standing at the edge of the aisle, Charlotte watched as the hostess walked past her to the back of the bus, instructing them all to return to their seats during the 'small' delay. While the others sit down in their spots, both her and the Doctor stay standing. The hostess picked up the phone.

"Maybe just a pit stop," guesses Biff as he sits down.

"There's no pit to stop in," Hobbes tells him. "I've been on this expedition fourteen times. They never stop."

Frustrated, Sky snapped at the professor. "Well, evidently we have stopped, so there's no point in denying it."

Unlike everyone else (including Charlotte, with her teeth clenched together in frustration) Jethro seems to take this situation light-heartedly. "We've broken down," he laughs.

"Thanks, Jethro," said his mum.

He continues to be all smiles. "In the middle of nowhere." The teen still somehow freaked Charlotte out with his reminder.

"That's enough, now stop it," scolds Biff. Jethro, then, sits back in his seat just as the hostess comes back from being on the phone and walks down the aisle.

"Ladies and gentlemen, and variations thereupon," she announces, exasperated as she stands at the front of the shuttle. "We're just experiencing a short delay. The driver needs to stabilize the engine feeds. It's a perfectly normal routine, so if you could just stay in your seats."

With the Doctor following closely behind Charlotte, they walked up to the door leading to the cockpit. The hostess, however, stands in their way. "I'm sorry, sir, miss, I-"

The Doctor flashes the psychic paper to her. "There you go. Engine experts. Two ticks."

As Charlotte presses on the button at the side of the door, the hostess continued to insist they went back to their seats. The door automatically slides open, revealing two men sitting in the front of the electronically lit compartment. From their chairs, they look back when the Doctor rests his arms on the back of their seats.

"You're not supposed to be in there!" The hostess calls as the door automatically closes behind them. The Doctor dropped is arm from the left seat, allowing Charlotte to cross both her arms over the top of it.

The larger man sitting on the right seat looks over his shoulder to them. "Sorry. If you could return to your seats, sir, miss."

The Doctor quickly shows Joe- which Charlotte believes his name is from the announcement before the ride- the psychic paper. "Company insurance. Let's see if we can get an early assessment. So, what's the problem, Driver Joe?"

"We're stabilizing the engine feeds," Joe informs them. "Won't take long."

"Er, no, 'cause that's the engine feed," he taps one of the screens at the side of the car, "that line there, and it's fine. And it's a micro-petrol engine, so stabilizing doesn't really make sense, does it? Sorry. I'm the Doctor, I'm very clever."

Charlotte, who was looking around the car as well, lightly kicked the Doctor's foot. "What's wrong with it?" She asked the two other men.

"We just stopped," the dark-skinned man sitting beside Joe answers. "Look, all systems fine, everything's working, but we're not moving."

The Doctor uses the sonic to scan the dashboard at the front of the compartment; he looks to the results. "Yeah, you're right. No faults. And who are you?"

"Claude. I'm the mechanic," he introduced himself before adding how he's just a trainee.

She sent a small smile down to Claude. "Charlotte." She introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you," the Doctor quickly says after her, turning back to Joe when he spoke up.

"I've sent a distress signal," the driver reports. "They should dispatch a rescue truck, top speed."

Nodding, the Doctor asked him "How long till they get here?"

"About an hour."

The Doctor looks up at the screen above the dashboard- showing a rough diagram of their surroundings. "Well, since we're waiting, shall we take a look outside?"

At the suggestion, Joe scrunched his eyebrows. "Uh..."

"Just lift the screens a bit?" Pushed the Doctor, curious to see for himself.

Joe looks up at him dumbfounded. "It's a hundred percent Xtonic out there. We'd be vaporized."

"Nah. Those windows are Finitoglass," the Doctor points out. "They'd give you a couple of minutes." He grinned down at him. "Go on, live a little."

Joe nervously laughs, then presses a button- causing the metal screens to be lifted and showing the glittering diamond mountains and grounds of Midnight. Charlotte's mouth gapes open, allowing any and all flies to fly into her mouth as she gazed into the horizon of rugged, white diamond grounds.

"Wow," says Joe as he looks outside just as amazed as everyone else in the car.

The Doctor's attention was caught at the rugged diamond surface too. "Oh, that is beautiful."

"Look at all those diamonds," gasps Claude. "Poisoned by the sun. No-one can ever touch them."

"Shame. Could probably get you a new suit," Charlotte jokes to the Doctor, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Why would I want a new one?" The Doctor scoffed before looking away from the view and looked over to the driver. "Joe, you said we took a detour?"

He answers relatively fast. "Just about forty kliks to the west."

"That's not a recognized path, right?" Charlotte confirmed, turning her attention away from the diamond grounds as well.

Joe nods. "It's a new one. The computer worked it out on automatic."

"So we're the first," the Doctor states, looking back through the glass in amazement. "This piece of ground. No one's ever been here before... not in the whole of recorded history."

"Did you just-?" Claude has his attention pointed outside, directed at something. "No, sorry, it's nothing."

Charlotte shook her head. "No, there was something, Claude, what did you see?" She tried to be as urgent as possible when asking.

"Just there. That ridge," he points out the glass, bringing all of their attention to where he points. "Like, like a shadow. Just, just for a second."

"What sort of shadow?" Questions the Doctor.

Charlotte also looked out to the ridge he pointed at, even knowing Claude definitely saw something there, she saw no signs of life among the diamonds. The alarm sounds with a series of beeps in the cockpit, causing her to lose her concentration on searching for the shadow.

"Xtonic rising," Joe informs them, pushing a button. "Shields down."

As the shields lower, Claude spots the shadow once again through the shrinking crack. "Look, look!" He points out of the crack, and all of them look downwards trying to spot it. "There it is, there it is. Look, there!"

Charlotte bent down, following the crack as it moved downwards. For just a split second, she saw something dark running towards them and her heart skipped a beat.

The shield is only inches from being fully closed. "Where?" The Doctor asks the mechanic. "What was it?" The shield now fully blocks them from the planet and its atmosphere.

"Like just something shifting," the trainee mechanic describes. "Something sort of dark, like it was running."

"Running which way?" The Doctor interrogates quickly after Claude finishes talking.

Seeing how shaken Claude is by what he just saw, Charlotte responded for him- as fast as possible to not waste any time. "Our way. It's running our way."

Claude looks up to her with wide eyes. "You saw it too?"

In his spot, Joe gulps down nervously. "Right, Doctor, Charlotte, back to your seats." He gave both of them a small smile that did not meet his fear-filled eyes. "And, er, not a word. Rescue's on its way. If you could close the door. Thank you."

Once leaving the cockpit, Charlotte returned to her original seat as the Doctor was bombarded with questions from Sky- who was not at all pleased with the situation. Just looking at her, it was as if Charlotte can already see the shell of a human she'll become very soon. Just thinking of that made all the blood drain from her face.

The fact that she knows everything will turn out sort of fine in the end, helped her before and when the shuttle bus shot off. Now she is reminded that it's not the destination that counts, it's the journey. And thinking of that made her curl in nervousness.

A/N: Life has been so crazy lately... I can't wait for this to be all over. Also my computer finally kicked the bucket so expect slower updates until I get a new one.

Next up: Midnight Part Two (Possessed Pinstripes Part Two)


	13. possessed pinstripes II

_To say the six other people in the shuttle took the situation calmly would be a lie._ Immediately after the hostess leaves the cockpit, everyone began talking over each other after overhearing Hobbes asking the Doctor how much air they had left and began shooting the man with questions. Meanwhile, Charlotte was as silent as a mouse- twisting her watch around her wrist (a habit she's grown accustomed to in the last few days)- waiting for the worst to happen.

The Doctor stands up from his seat- shushing them. "Everyone! Quiet!" He shouts, gaining their attention and finally quieting them all. "Thank you. Now, if you'd care to listen to my good friend Dee Dee."

Pushing her glasses up her nose, Dee Dee stands up from her spot, too. "Oh. Er, it's just that, well, the air's on a circular filter, so we could stay breathing for ten years." Val and Biff slump down in their seats.

"There you go," says the Doctor. "And I've spoken to the Captain. I can guarantee you everything's fine."

After the Doctor's word, two large knocks pound against the outside of the shuttle. At that, Charlotte's heart leaped out of her chest.

"What was that?" Val wonders.

Hobbes tries explaining how it is just the shuttle bus settling. "Probably not..." Charlotte muttered at the end of his bogus explanation. The Doctor, the only person who heard her, looked over at her… about to ask her to elaborate when Dee Dee gave her own idea.

"Rocks. It could just be rocks falling," she hypothesizes.

Biff looks up to the hostess. "What I want to know is how long do we have to sit here?"

More knocks erupt from the other side of the shuttle. As she stood in the aisle, Sky looked around frantically. "What is that?" She asked no one in particular.

Val looks in the direction the thump came from. "There's someone out there," she states, much to the disapproval of Hobbes.

Hobbes disregards what Val said entirely. "Now, don't be ridiculous," he responds to her. Charlotte kept quiet but rolled her eyes at his stubbornness.

Dee Dee looks back to the professor from where she stands in the aisle. "Like I said, it could be rocks."

"We're out in the open," the hostess informs, looking around the group. "Nothing could fall against the sides."

Thump, Thump. You could hear a pin drop in the shuttle after the thing bangs on the outside twice more. Along with everyone else, Charlotte had her head pointed from where the knocks came- the back of the bus.

"Knock, knock," says the Doctor.

While Charlotte could practically hear her heart pound in her chest, Jethro adds, "Who's there?"

"Is there something out there?" Sky's voice went up a pitch as she asked. "Well? Anyone?" More hits against the shuttle stops anyone from guessing what it is and Biff jumps from his seat at the knocks.

"What the hell is making that noise?!"

Urgently, Hobbes denies any possibility that anything living is out there again. "I'm sorry, but the light out there is Xtonic. That means it would destroy any living thing in a split second. It is impossible for someone to be outside."

Despite the shake in her hands and the goosebumps going all over her body, Charlotte looked over at the professor with a scowl. "Not to be rude, but denying it won't help you any longer, sir." More knocks erupt from the outside.

"Well, what the hell is that then?" Sky snapped at Hobbes.

The Doctor moves from his seat to where the last knocks came from, Charlotte following him out of their row. Standing at the edge of the aisle, she watched as the Doctor went to the hull of the shuttle. Taking the stethoscope out from his pocket, he listens as he puts it against the wall and the brunette watching bit her tongue.

Thump! Thump!

For a second, she jumped back, then two more fast-paced knocks came from the other side of the shuttle- near the emergency exit. "It's moving," Jethro points out before the emergency exit began rattling.

Puzzled himself, the Doctor looked over to Charlotte with the stethoscope hanging from his neck. Seeing the slight look of fear in her eyes, he knew immediately what was happening wasn't anything good at all. He turns back to the door, approaching it ever so slightly.

Val gasps and points to the emergency exit as it begins to move. "It's trying the door!"

"There is no it," insists Hobbes. "There's nothing out there. Can't be."

There was only a few seconds of silence after Hobbes' word. The creature outside the shuttle continued to try opening the door. Thump! Thump! All of their heads shot to the ceiling, the knocks catching them off guard. Their heads go back to the entrance as it knocks again.

"That's the entrance. Can it get in?" Val asks urgently, keeping her eyes set on the door.

Dee Dee answers her, "No. That door's on two hundredweight hydraulics."

"Stop it," Hobbes scolds her. "Don't encourage them."

Charlotte gave a disappointed glance at Hobbes. "Being more helpful than you," she mumbled without another glance at him as her eyes were glued at the entrance, moving forward to stand beside the Doctor.

"What do you think it is?" Dee Dee questioned him in a whisper.

Moving out his row, Biff moves to the entrance. "Biff, don't," his wife pleaded in deep worry.

"Mister Cane, better not," the Doctor warns him as Biff moves past him towards the door.

With his back to the two, he stood in front of the entrance without any fear. "Nah, it's cast iron, that door," he said, then confidently knocks three times on the door. With only a moment of silence, the knocks were repeated on the other side.

Val gasps and puts a shaky hand over her mouth. "Three times!" She exclaims, astounded. "Did you hear that?"

"It answered," Jethro stated in between his mother's freaking out.

Val, meanwhile, continues her frantic speech, "It did it three times!"

The Doctor stands in between everyone else and the entrance, gaining their attention. "All right, all right, all right. Everyone calm down." Everyone else seems to settle down, except, of course, Sky who is the most scared of the group.

"No, but it answered," Sky says right after the Doctor, utterly panicked. "It answered. Don't tell me that thing's not alive. It answered." The thing repeated the three knocks again.

The Hostess has had enough. "I really must insist you get back in your seats!" She orders, raising her voice.

"No, don't just stand there telling us the rules," Sky shouts manically to the woman. "It answered. Don't tell me that thing's not alive. It answered him." Three more knocks on the bus interrupts Sky from continuing.

"I really must insist you get back to your seats," the Hostess repeats her direction from seconds ago.

Sky still doesn't listen, "No, don't just stand there telling us the rules. You're the hostess. You're supposed to do something."

"I know you're afraid but you need calm down-" Charlotte began, but was cut off by four more knocks from the inside of the car. Turning back to the door, she sees the Doctor next to it. After a long silent pause, the thing outside repeated his knocks.

"What is it? What the hell's making that noise?!" Sky asks no one in particular, very frenzied. "She said she'd get me. Stop it. Make it stop. Somebody make it stop. Don't just stand there looking at me! It's not my fault. He started it with his stories." In her frenzied state, she points to Hobbes.

"Calm down!" Dee Dee shouts to her but is ignored as she continues.

The situation still panics her terribly. "And he made it worse!" She pointed to the Doctor.

"You're not helping," Val tells her, but is hardly heard over the commotion.

"Why didn't you leave it alone? Stop staring at me! Just tell me what the hell it is."

"I don't know!" Charlotte shouted back to her, fed up with her unhelpful comments and stress this trip brought. Like the last episode she experienced, the creature was just as mysterious to her. But this time it wasn't forgetting a fact she should know, it was the fact she couldn't even ask what it was (if she so chose). And that frustrated her beyond belief.

The knocks start on the roof, now. "It's coming for me." Sky backs up to the driver's door with knocks following her as she goes. "Oh, it's coming for me." Knock! "It's coming for me." Knock! "It's coming for me." Knock, knock! "It's coming for me." With one final knock on the roof, Sky shrieks in terror against the driver's door.

"Get out of there!" The Doctor shouts to her, about to run to help her- when, knowing his effort would be no help, Charlotte pulled him back, wanting him to be safe for the incoming shake of the shuttle.

However, as the shuttle began to tumble them around like rag dolls as it moved side to side, Charlotte was forced to let go of his hand immediately. Sparks flew in the car as she shrieked and tumbled around- her head hitting against the wall and then the ground in a row of seats when the car finally stood still. With a groan, she used the seats to help herself stand up in the dark shuttle.

"You alright? Okay," She heard Biff say on the other side of the bus.

As her brain pounded inside her head, she stood up- still holding onto the back of a seat, mind you. Stars floated around in her vision as her ears rang. Rubbing her head, she moaned. She looks up and notices part of the entertainment system up once again, with the TVs down from the ceiling matched with the retro woman singing (but, luckily, the audio wasn't working).

The Doctor climbs up from the row beside her's. "Arms, legs, neck, head, nose. I'm fine," he checks. He looks over to her. "You all right?"

The headache was still here, but she tightly smiled. "I'm good," she responded.

The Doctor wasn't at all convinced. "All right, I'll look at it on the TARDIS. Everyone else? How are we?"

As the Doctor looked around at the rest of their group, Charlotte's eyes were set on the small drop down television behind him. The pop singer was shortly replaced by static, and then Rose Tyler appeared on the screen desperately calling out his name. Despite how much she wanted to show him who was on the screen, Charlotte kept quiet, knowing very well she couldn't. Near the close of Rose's communication, Charlotte just gave her a small salute.

"How are we?" He repeats, "Everyone all right?"

Hobbes, still on the ground from the tumble, is persistent that nothing is out there. "Earthquake," he says. "Must be."

"But that's impossible. The ground is fixed. It's solid," Dee Dee reminds him.

The hostess shined a bright flashlight to the Doctor's face, causing him to squint, as she told everyone they could find torches in the backs of their seats. While everyone else quickly grabbed one from their nearest seat, Charlotte decided to just use the light they are giving off from their own.

"Oh, Jethro," Val attempted to comfort her son, walking up to where he leaned over a row of seats- pointing his flashlight to Sky. "Sweetheart, come here."

"Never mind me. What about her?"

His mum's and everyone else's attention is directed to Sky, sitting in the remains of the front row with her hands covering the back of her head. The front row is now just remains, with parts of the seats scattered around the shuttle's front. Charlotte took in sharp breath at the sight.

"What happened to the seats?" Is Val's first question.

Biff shines another light to Sky. "Who did that?"

"They've been ripped up," Val points out.

The Doctor moves to where Sky sits. Seeing him go, Charlotte's mouth gaped open- I should warn him, she thought, but still held her tongue. She knew what would happen if she were to talk, so she'd have to speak as little as possible.

He kneels down onto the ground and sets a hand onto her shoulder. "It's all right, it's all right," he consoles her. "It's all right. It's over. We're still alive. Look, the wall's still intact. Do you see?" He points his torch to the wall to the right, it was dented inwards but still intact. "We're safe."

Charlotte looks back to see the hostess with the intercom at her ear. "Driver Joe, can you hear me?!" She nearly shouts into it, then angrily sets the intercom back soon after. She storms down the aisle to the Driver's door, as she does she shouts to them, "I'm not getting any response. The intercom must be down." She stopped at the driver's door and pressed the button on the side.

Intense light pours into the shuttle from the open door, Charlotte squinted and covered her dark eyes from the harsh light that flooded the bus but it hardly helped get the unbelievably bright light out of her vision. They all stand there unmoving for a moment, Charlotte letting out a groan as it caused her headache to become even more unbearable.

Once the hostess closes the Driver's door, Charlotte began blinking rapidly. Until the door was fully closed an alarm sounded. "What happened? What was that?" Val was the first to ask.

"Is it the driver? Have we lost the driver?" Biff adds frantically.

The hostess, shaking as she looks to the closed door, answers unbelievingly at what just happened, "The cabins gone…"

"Don't be ridiculous," Hobbes dismisses quickly. "It can't be gone. How can it be gone?"

"Well, you saw it," replies Dee Dee.

Charlotte looks at the door to see the Doctor crouched low on the ground beside it, using the sonic on the edges of a panel.

"There was nothing there like it was ripped away," the hostess says quietly, reliving the sight they all just witnessed. Charlotte looks from her to the closed door, remembering what is going to happen later. Her eyes widened and looked away from her, feeling oddly guilty.

"What are you doing?" Biff shines the light to the man crouched in front of the panel.

"Ah, that's better," the Doctor doesn't answer Biff's question. "Little bit of light. Thank you. Molto bene."

"Don't mind him, he's just a bit slow on the uptake," said Charlotte, trying to have their growing opinions on him be good, knowing very well what could happen if they aren't.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Val questions the Doctor as he continues to buzz the sonic around the edge of the panel.

"The cabin's gone," Biff reminds them, still pointing his torch to the Doctor. "You'd better leave that wall alone."

"The cabin can't be gone," Hobbes quickly responded to Biff with a shake of his head, causing both Dee Dee and Charlotte to roll their eyes.

"No, it's safe," the Doctor sets the sonic aside. "Any rupture would automatically seal itself." He removes the panel from the wall with his hands, showing how the wiring on the back side of the panel is sliced. The Doctor looks down to the sliced wiring. "But something sliced it off. You're right, the cabin's gone."

"But if it gets separated..." the hostess starts, unable to finish her thought.

The Doctor places the panel on the ground, "It loses integrity," he stated, standing up to look to the rest of the people in the bus. "I'm sorry, they've been reduced to dust." The five others stand visibly shaken as Charlotte looks towards Sky, only Jethro's torch giving her light to see her.

"The driver and the mechanic," noticing how despondent they were, the Doctor continued. "But they sent a distress signal. Help is on its way. They saved our lives. We are going to get out of here, I promise. We're still alive, and they are going to find us."

"Doctor," Jethro says quietly, gaining his attention. "Look at her." Under the torch's light, Sky still is sitting on the ground with her back facing them and her head in her the palms of her hands. Looking at the woman, Charlotte gulped.

"Right. Yes. Sorry. Have we got a medical kit?"

"Why won't she turn around?" Jethro wonders, still staring at Sky.

Hobbes looks to the hostess standing to the right of him. "What's her name?"

"Silvestry," she answers. "Mrs. Sky Silvestry."

Clenching her teeth together, Charlotte held back her warnings as the Doctor started speaking to Sky. "Sky? Can you hear me?" He bends down to her height. "Are you all right? Can you move, Sky? Just look at me."

"That noise from outside. It stopped," Jethro points out.

His mum looks around in revelation. "Well thank God for that!"

"But what if it's not outside anymore?" Her son theorizes, shaking just a bit. "What if it's inside?"

Charlotte moved out of Val's way as she went to confront her son. "Inside? Where?"

"It was heading for her."

The Doctor continues reaching out to Sky. "Sky? It's all right, Sky. I just want you to turn around, face me." Standing a few feet behind him, Charlotte watched the scene intently.

Slowly, Sky lets one hand go to her side then the other. She turns around almost as slowly then faced the torchlight. Even Charlotte felt a chill take over her spine as her cold, unblinking eyes looked right through her before moving on to everyone else in the shuttle.

The Doctor is still crouched on the ground, he leans forward in Sky's direction. Immediately, her head snaps to him… her eyes staring through him just as cold as they did to the rest of them. The Doctor tilts his head, which she copies exactly. "Sky?" He whispered carefully, her eyes still staring straight at him.

"Sky?" She repeats, causing the brunette's face to turn ghostly white.

"Are you all right?" He asks her, slowly trying to get an answer.

"Are you all right?" She repeated.

"Are you hurt?"

"Are you hurt?"

Everyone's eyes are glued to what was happening in front of them, Charlotte's included as she stood as still as a statue while the Doctor says to Sky "You don't have to talk."

"You don't have to talk," Sky repeated as Charlotte agreed with her statement. 'Everyone should just stay mute for the next while!' She thought.

"I'm trying to help," he said.

And she repeated it, "I'm trying to help."

"My name's the Doctor."

"My name's the Doctor."

"Okay, can you stop?" He asked, beginning to be tired of her 'joke.'

"Okay, can you stop?" She repeats once again.

Again, the Doctor tries to get her to stop, "I'd like you to stop," he tells her, thinking she may stop.

But that won't be for a while longer. "I'd like you to stop," she copies.

"Why's she doing that?" Hobbes wonders aloud.

She looks directly at the professor, "Why's she doing that?" Sky repeats again.

"She's gone mad," Biff whispers, but Sky still looks up to him. "She's gone mad," she repeated.

"Stop it," Val said to Sky, absolutely fed up.

"Stop it," Sky repeated, looking up to Val.

"I said 'stop it,'" Val shouts to Sky, only for her to repeat Val again; "I said stop it."

From where she stood away from the larger group, Charlotte looked at Dee Dee as she said, "I don't think she can…"

"I don't think she can," Sky repeated.

Hobbes looks down to Sky. "All right now, stop it. This isn't funny."

As anyone could predict, Hobbes scolding her doesn't help. "All right now, stop it," she repeated. "This isn't funny."

"Shush, shush, shush, all of you," the Doctor tried cutting the group off from their questioning.

"Shush, shush, shush, all of you," Sky repeats, unknowingly helping him.

Jethro doesn't listen. "My name's Jethro," he says, taking advantage of the problem at hand.

For a second, Sky looks over to Jethro, "My name's Jethro," she repeats.

Sky then looks back to the Doctor as he says to the teenage boy, "Jethro, leave it. Just shut up."

"Jethro, leave it. Just shut up," she copies, looking to the side of the Doctor's head as she does so.

The Doctor looks back to her. As he leaned in closer to Sky, Charlotte opened her mouth, ready to warn him, but thought against it again. "Why are you repeating?" He asked her calmly.

From behind the Doctor, she can see Sky keeping the cold eye-contact with him as she repeated his previous question, "Why are you repeating?"

"What is that, learning?"

"What is that, learning?"

"Copying?" He guesses.

"Copying?"

"Absorbing?"

She repeated another time, "Absorbing?"

The Doctor paused, not saying anything for a second. "The square root of pi is 1.7724-" Sky begins repeating what he said and is saying, overlapping with him. Everyone looked down to them as the Doctor says seemingly random numbers and Sky repeats. "Wow," he finishes.

"...3341. Wow," she finishes shortly after him.

Everyone looks to each other, shocked by what just happened. "But that's impossible!" Hobbes discards what just happened in front of him.

Sky looks over to Hobbes, "But that's impossible!"

"She couldn't repeat all that," Dee Dee whispers to Hobbes, which Sky repeated.

"Tell her to stop," Val demands of no one specific.

Sky repeats, "Tell her to stop."

"She's driving me mad," Val continues trying to get Sky to be silent, but that doesn't work.

Sky repeats, "She's driving me mad."

"Just make her stop!" Cries Val, only to be repeated by Sky again.

People begin talking over each other- shouting over each other. Sky's head shoots around to everyone as she repeats what they said. "Stop her staring at me. Shut her up," Val demands. "Stop her staring at me. Shut her up," Sky repeated.

"It's got to be a trick," the hostess said. "It's got to be a trick."

"That's impossible," Dee Dee thought out loud. "That's impossible."

Biff raises his voice, pointing a finger at her. "I'm telling you, whatever your name is." "I'm telling you, whatever your name is."

The Doctor finally stands up. "Now, just stop it, all of you," he urged to no avail. "Now, just stop it, all of you," Val repeats him again. The Doctor stands to the left of Charlotte, finally noticing her silence. "You've been silent the whole time," he realized, no one hearing it as they envelop themselves in chaos.

"You've been silent the whole time," Sky repeats unbeknownst to anyone else.

She nodded, putting a finger to her lips.

"Mrs. Silvestry!" She heard the hostess shout for her. "Mrs. Silvestry!"

"666." "666."

Charlotte could only hear the end of what Val said, "Make her stop!" she shouts. "Make her stop!"

A hush falls over the shuttle bus as the lights turn back on. "That's the backup system," the hostess explains with a sigh and everyone turned off their torches.

"Well," Biff starts awkwardly. "That's a bit better."

"What about the rescue?" Val asks the hostess as she walks past her down the aisle. "How long's it going to take?"

Glancing down to Sky, Charlotte noticed she hasn't been saying anything since the lights turned back on.

"About sixty minutes, that's all," the hostess answers Val.

"Then I suggest we all calm down," Hobbes suggests. "This panic isn't helping. That poor woman is evidently in a state of-" Sky begins talking along with Hobbes, "self-induced hysteria. We should leave her alone." While Charlotte didn't agree with the 'self-induced hysteria' part, she very much agreed with the 'leave her alone' part.

She looks over to the Doctor, trying to see if he saw what just happened with Sky, and saw his eyebrows scrunched together.

Seeing it as well, Jethro's eyes widened. "Doctor…"

"I know," the Doctor replies to him in a low tone. He looks to Sky, who is still sitting on the ground in front of them.

"Doctor, now step back," both Hobbes and Sky caution him. "I think you should leave her. Alone. What's she doing?" Hobbes steps back, looking down to see Sky staring at him.

Val stands up from the chair she was sitting in. "How can she do that?" She wonders, Sky talking along with her too. "She's talking with you. And with me. Oh, my God. Biff, what's she doing?"

Her son answers instead, along with Sky following his every word, "She's repeating, at exactly the same time."

"That's impossible," Dee Dee says once again, along with Sky.

"There's not even a delay," Hobbes added with her, looking down to Sky with the rest.

As he shook his head, Jethro and Sky said "Oh man, that is weird."

"I think you all should all be very, very quiet," the Doctor advises them. Knowing how Charlotte has stayed completely silent, and seeing how she knew everything that'll happen, he knew everyone should be just as quiet as her. However, the Doctor couldn't help being curious what happened to the woman himself… "Have you got that?"

"How's she doing it?" Val questions, along with Sky.

"Mrs. Cane, please be quiet," the Doctor orders her with Sky.

Val doesn't seem to hear him, and even if she did she continues to yell terror-stricken as her and Sky talk simultaneously. While she does, Biff tries to calm her down. And when she finally settles, Biff begins being frightened by Sky as well.

"She's doing it to me!" Biff and Sky exclaimed as he looked down at her in fear.

The Doctor gave a stern look at the panicked couple. "Just stop it, all of you. Stop it, please." Next, before he leaves the spot beside Charlotte, she sends him a look both trying to tell him to 'be careful' and 'what do you think you're doing.' However way he took it, he still moves forward and crouches in front of Sky.

"Now then, Sky," he begins, the woman in question saying every word with him. "Are you Sky? Is Sky still in there? Mrs. Silvestry?" He asks her carefully, and the brunette behind him sees Sky having constant eye contact with him as she talks along. "You know exactly what I'm going to say. How are you doing that?" At the same time, they both lean back in their spots.

The Doctor pauses for a second before he begins to say things randomly- which Sky says along with him easily. "Roast beef. Bananas. The Dumbbell Nebula. The Medusa Cascade. Bang! Charlotte Bolton, Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, TARDIS." He delays what he says next, not surprising Sky. "Shamble bobble dibble dooble. Oh, Doctor, you're so handsome. Yes, I am, thank you. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O-" he cuts off, unexpectedly but Sky still catches it. He stands up from the ground. "First she repeats, then she catches up. What's the next stage?"

"Next stage of what?" Dee Dee asks with Sky.

"That's not her, is it?" Jethro guesses with her, looking down to the woman fearfully. "That's not Mrs. Silvestry anymore."

"I don't think so, no," the Doctor and Sky answers. Afraid, Val begins to cry in her husband's arms. "I think the more we talk, the more she learns. Now, I'm all for education, but in this case, maybe not. Let's just move back. Come on. Come with me." He begins ushering people down the aisle, away from Sky (Charlotte walking in front of him as he does). "Everyone, get back. All of you, as far as you can."

"Doctor, make her stop," Val whimpered with Sky.

"Val, come with me," he said to her firmly with Sky, pushing her towards where the rest of us stand- at the back of the shuttle near the kitchen area. "Come to the back. Stop looking at her. Come on, Jethro, you too. Everyone, come on."

Now, everyone stood at the back of the shuttle. Charlotte, standing near the back of the group, tried to draw as little attention to herself as possible, believing she may be blamed if they got suspicious of her silence. Dee Dee leans over the half wall, looking where Sky is glued on the ground and staring directly at them. When she caught Sky's eye from across the shuttle, Charlotte stiffened.

"Fifty minutes, that's all we need," the Doctor tells them, his back facing Sky. "Fifty minutes till the rescue arrives. And she's not exactly strong. Look at her. All she's got is our voices."

'That's exactly why she's terrifying,' Charlotte thought with a roll of her eyes.

"I can't," Val tells him with Sky, looking back and forth from where Sky sits on the ground. "I can't look at her. It's those eyes."

Dee Dee still stares at Sky. "'We must not look at goblin men.'" They both quoted Goblin Market, Charlotte looked in her direction after recognizing the familiar poem… remembering when she got it as a gag gift two Christmases ago.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Biff questions her.

"It's a poem," the Doctor answers. "Christina Rossetti."

Biff doesn't say any more, and the group is engulfed in awkward silence as Sky looks at them. "'We must not look at goblin men. We must not buy their fruits. Who knows upon what soil they fed. Their hungry, thirsty roots?'" Dee Dee continued to quote the next three lines with Sky, still looking at the blonde from afar.

"Actually, I don't think that's helping," the Doctor tells her.

Bending down slightly to meet Dee Dee, Hobbes gave her a stern look. "She's not a goblin or a monster. She's just a very sick woman." Looking at Sky, Charlotte unsurprisingly saw her speak with him.

"Maybe that's why it went for her," Jethro theorized, looking back and forth from them and her.

Hobbes is still rejecting the fact, "There is no 'it.'"

"Think about it though. The knocking went all the way 'round the bus until it found her," Jethro explains with Sky in the background. "And she was the most scared out of all of us. Maybe that's what it needed. That's how it got in."

"For the last time," Hobbes begins with Sky, already causing Charlotte to roll her eyes at his stubbornness. "Nothing can live on the surface of Midnight."

"Professor, I'm glad you've got an absolute definition of life in the universe, but perhaps the universe has got ideas of its own, hmm?" Happy the Doctor finally said something to him, Charlotte smirked. "Now trust me, I've got previous. I think there might well be some consciousness inside Mrs. Silvestry, but maybe she's still in there," he looks back to her as she spoke with him. "And it's our job to help her."

"Well, you can help her," Biff agrees with the Doctor as Sky continues talking along. "I'm not going near."

"No, I've got to stay back, because if she's copying us, then maybe the final stage is becoming us. I don't want her becoming me, or things could get a whole lot worse."

Val rolls her eyes at him. "Oh, like you're so special," Sky and her sneer.

"As it happens, yes, I am," he agrees with her alongside Sky. "So that's decided. We stay back, and we wait. When the rescue ship comes, we can get her to the hospital."

Looking at the hostess, Charlotte noticed her dark look aimed at Sky. "We should throw her out," she hissed with her.

As much as Charlotte hated to admit it, she agreed with her. She should want to help as many people as possible, but Sky… she highly doubted any hospital could help her. She was a danger. And in her mind, she believes she'll only continue bringing harm in a hospital.

Hobbes looks to the hostess incredulously. "I beg your pardon?"

"Can we do that?" Val asks with Sky.

The Doctor looks down to Val. "Don't be ridiculous."

The hostess looks around the group, going back to looking to the Doctor the most. "That thing, whatever it is, killed the driver, and the mechanic, and I don't think she's finished yet," she explains just as scared as everyone else, causing the Doctor to look to her shocked- wondering how anyone could suggest something so terrible? Yet, he knew someone else here had to be thinking the same as him. He knew one person in this car who definitely wouldn't.

But that one person thought differently. "She's right."

"She's right," Sky repeats a second later.

_Next up: Midnight Part Three (Possessed Pinstripes Part __Two)_A/N: soo I love this episode so much, it's honestly so fun to write for


	14. possessed pinstripes III

**_"She's right,"_** Charlotte agreed with the hostess' idea to throw Sky out of the shuttle.

"She's right," repeated Sky a second after, however, she was hardly heard from this far back in the shuttle.

The Doctor looks away from the hostess and over to his friend. From his face alone, she could tell how stunned he was by what she suggested. "She can't even move!" He said along with Sky.

"Just look at her," she began, glimpsing towards her as she did- seeing her mock her own words. "Her eyes, don't you see how cold they are? She'd kill any of us in an instant- just like she did to Joe and Claude."

Looking down to Sky as well, the hostess knew what Charlotte was leading to. "And we're next..." she added on.

Hearing her, Biff stormed past the Doctor to Sky. "She's still doing it. Just stop. Stop talking! Stop it!" He shouted at her, Sky following along perfectly.

"Biff, don't, sweetheart," Val calls to her husband.

"But she won't stop," Biff and Sky complain, coming back to the group. "We can't throw her out, though. We can't even open the doors."

The Doctor stopped him at that, "No one is getting thrown out," he tells Biff with his eyebrows raised. He looks the man in the eyes, testing him. Biff says nothing more and goes to stand beside his wife.

"Yes, we can," Dee Dee plus Sky blurt in the silence. "Because there's an air pressure seal. Like when you opened the cabin door, you weren't pulled out. You had a couple of seconds because it takes the pressure wall about six seconds to collapse," she pauses, looking to Biff and Val on her right. "Well, six seconds exactly. That's enough time to throw someone out."

"Thanks, Dee Dee. Just what we needed," the Doctor says sarcastically, along with Sky.

Val looks over to Dee Dee. "Would it kill her outside?" She asks.

"I don't know," answered Dee Dee and Sky. "But she's got a body now. It would certainly kill the physical form."

The Doctor leans forward, his face stern as he looks to all of us. "No one is killing _anyone_," he stated along with Sky, his voice showing how cross he is at the idea.

"I wouldn't risk the cabin door twice," said the hostess with Sky, "but we've got that one." She nods at the emergency exit. "All we need to do is grab hold of her and throw her out."

"Now, listen, all of you," the Doctor says quickly after the hostess, still very frustrated. "For all we know that's a brand new life form over there. And if it's come inside to discover us, then what's it found? This little bunch of humans. What do you amount to, murder?" _Same could be said to it,_ thought Charlotte, but kept silent.

He pauses, looking around the group, his eyes landing on Charlotte the most. "Because this is where you decide. You decide who you are. Could you actually murder her? Any of you? Really? Or are you better than that?"

Once he finished, everything stood still. Looking around, Charlotte notices Val looking to the ground in thought. Taking in a deep breath, the hostess breaks the silence, "I'd do it."

"So would I," Biff adds with Sky.

Val nods. " And me."

While she did too, she hesitated in adding along (_'maybe I should just leave the rest of this alone?'_ she thought). Charlotte nodded meekly. "Me too," she says._ "Me too."_

"I think we should," Dee Dee and Sky agree.

"What?" The Doctor said, taken aback by how many are agreeing.

Dee Dee looks forward to where he stands. "I want her out," she explained with Sky following along.

"You can't say that," he and Sky tell her.

"I'm sorry, but you said it yourself, Doctor," Dee Dee looks up to him. "She is growing in strength."

"That's not what I said."

"I want to go home," Dee Dee tells him, her voice wavering. "I want to be safe."

"You'll be safe any minute now. The rescue truck is on its way," the Doctor comforts her. He faces the hostess as she began putting in her thinking.

"But what happens then, Doctor?" The hostess questions him along with Sky. "If it takes that thing back to the Leisure Palace, if that thing reaches civilization. What if it spreads?" She looks back to Sky, terrified of the thought.

He still looks toward the hostess. "No, because when we get back to the base, I'll be there to contain it."

"You haven't done much so far," Val accuses him.

Biff agrees with his wife, "You're just standing in the back with the rest of us." Charlotte looks towards Biff and Val, as much as she disagreed with the Doctor at the moment she didn't agree with the couple anymore than him.

"She's dangerous," continues the hostess. "It's my job to see that this vessel is safe, and we should get rid of her."

Hobbes speaks up with Sky following his word, "Now, hang on. I think perhaps we're all going a little bit too far."

"At last," the Doctor says, patting Hobbes on the shoulder. "Thank you."

The hostess stomps her foot on the ground. "Two people are _dead!" _

"Don't make it a third," he chastised her. The Doctor looks over to where Jethro stands to the side, much calmer he said to him "Jethro, what do you say?"

"I'm not killing anyone," Jethro tells him, hesitating before he answered.

"Thank you."

Val looks up to her son. "He's just a boy."

Jethro looks down to her, his eyes narrowing. "What, so I don't get a vote?"

"There isn't a vote," the Doctor immediately corrects. "It's not happening. _Ever. _If you try to throw her out that door, you'll have to get past me first."

Again a long moment of silence fell over, only to be broken again by the hostess, "Okay," she says.

"Fine by me," Biff agrees along with Sky.

"Oh, now you're being stupid," the Doctor says, moving to stand right in front of Biff. "Just think about it. Could you actually take hold of someone and throw them out of that door?"

"Calling me a coward?" Biff squared up promptly.

Val looks back to the Doctor. "Who put you in charge, anyway?" She questioned him.

Hobbes, like Val, looks to the Doctor curiously. "I'm sorry, but you're a Doctor of what, exactly?"

"Both him and her weren't even booked in," the hostess tells the rest. The group glances over at Charlotte, becoming suspicious of her too. "The rest of you, tickets in advance. They just turned up out of the blue."

As she felt the group growing suspicious of her as well, she stood beside the Doctor.

"Where from?" Val interrogates.

"We're just traveling," he answers. "We're travelers, that's all."

"Like an immigrant?" Val continues questioning them.

The rest of the passengers look forward to where the two of us stand. "Who were you talking to?" The hostess asks, her eyes narrowed in our direction. "Before you got on board, you were talking to someone. Who was that?"

"Our friend, Donna," Charlotte responded truthfully- after remembering the said conversation that feels like years ago. Sooner than she has previously, Sky repeats her statement.

Biff, along with everyone else, doesn't believe her. "And what were you saying to her?" He queried, Sky talking along with him.

"Stuff!" She tells him, honestly not remembering any part of the conversation. "I don't remember."

Biff continues pushing for no answer, "What 'stuff?'"

Quickly after, his wife adds another fact, "She's hardly talked the whole time."

"The thing is though, Doctor, you've been loving this," Jethro says to him, much to the Doctor's surprise.

The Doctor tilts his head. "Oh, Jethro, not you too," he replies to the boy with Sky saying the same in the background.

Jethro doesn't as much as blink when he quickly backed up his statement, "No, but ever since all the trouble started, you've been loving it."

"It has to be said," Hobbes and Sky tell him. "You do seem to have a certain glee."

"All right, I'm interested," admits the Doctor quickly, with Sky. "Yes, I can't help it. Because whatever's inside of her," he looks back to where Sky still sits in the rubble, "it's brand new, and that's fascinating." The Doctor faces the group.

"What, you wanted this to happen?" Val and Sky frame him.

"No! Char-"

Biff interrupts what else the Doctor had to say, "And you were talking to her, all on your own, before all the trouble," to make a point, Biff points over to Sky as she continues saying his words. "Right at the front, you were talking to that Sky woman, the two of you together. I saw you."

"We all did," Val and Sky clarify.

"You both went into the cabin," the hostess adds, her voice trembling.

"What were you saying to her?" Biff demands, his booming voice making it hard to hear Sky talking with him. The question was left unanswered as everyone's voice began tumbling over each other.

"You called us humans. Like you're not one of us," Jethro points out.

Val's eyes widen in realization. "He did. That's what he said," she said with Sky.

"And why have you only just started talking now?" Biff questioned me, his eyebrows furrowed together as his eyes shoot daggers toward her.

"That's a lie, I spoke earlier," she corrected him, Sky beginning to overlap with her. "I was just so scared of _her, _that's whyI've been silent for most of it."

"And the wiring," added Dee Dee. "He went into that panel and opened up the wiring."

The Doctor looks back to her. "That was after."

"But how did you know what to do?" Biff's eyebrows raise as he questions the Doctor.

"Because I'm clever!" The Doctor snaps, shouting to their faces. A shocked silence immediately fell over their group.

"I see," Hobbes starts, his voice trailing off for a second. "Well, that makes things clear."

"And what are we, then? Idiots?" Biff adds, with his eyes glaring to the Doctor.

Charlotte pushed her hair back as they became more mistrustful. "Bloody Hell," she sighed.

Sky then talks along with Dee Dee, "If you're clever, then what are we?"

Pushing her eyebrows together, Val looks at the Doctor. "You've been looking down on us from the moment we walked in," she claims with Sky in the back.

"He's practically volunteered," the hostess said coldly.

"Oh come on, just listen to yourself," the Doctor chided them along with Sky. "Please."

Biff glances to the hostess then looks to the Doctor. "Do you mean we throw him out as well?" He questions her.

With a long pause, everyone looked to the hostess as she decides what to say next. She inhales sharply. "If we have to."

Charlotte clenched her jaw, looking at them sharply. "If we throw anyone out it's gonna be _her_."

"We aren't throwing _anyone_ out," the Doctor said to her. "Look, just. Right, sorry, yes," the Doctor puts his hands up in the air, "hold on, just. I know you're scared, and so am I. Look at me, I am. But we have all got to calm down and cool off and _think."_

With a sigh, Hobbes says to him, "Perhaps you could tell us your name?"

"What does it matter?" The Doctor questions him back with Sky.

"Then tell us," said the hostess urgently.

Before the Doctor could use John Smith, which she knew would sound stupid, Charlotte used the first name that came to mind. "David Tennant." She caught their attention. "His name's David Tennant." For a second, she thought maybe they'd believe her. But, as her heart pounded inside her chest while they looked at her, the nerves took over... causing her to unconsciously have her eyes dart around and her face turn beet red.

"She's lying," states Biff. "Look at her."

Jethro looks to the Doctor. "Why won't you tell us?" He asks him sourly.

With the anarchy erupting on the bus, they could only hear a hand full of their complaints. "It's a simple enough question," Dee Dee and Sky said, referring to his name.

Again, the hostess repeats the question for the Doctor, "What's your name?"

"Now listen to me. Listen to me right now," the Doctor begins, shouting to be heard over their overlapping voices, "because you need me, all of you. If we are going to get out of this, then you need me."

"So you keep saying. You've been repeating yourself more than her," Hobbes points to where Sky sits menacingly on the ground.

As Val began adding what she thought as well, Charlotte looked over to see Jethro's attention set to Sky. Turning her head to her, she sees the woman staring at them from her spot in the rubble, just as she's always been. Then she noticed what was wrong, despite Val speaking, she was completely silent.

"Mum, stop. Just look," Jethro advises her.

Instead, his mother says to him, "You keep out of this, Jethro."

"Listen to your son," Charlotte shouted for Val. "She isn't talking."

The talking ceases as everyone else looks over to Sky. "She's stopped..." Dee Dee states, shocked.

"When did she?" Asked the Doctor- but, unlike everyone else including Charlotte, Sky is still talking along with him. "No, she hasn't. She's still doing it."

"She looks the same to me," Val whispered as if Sky could hear them. When she realizes what happened, her voice goes to a normal volume. "No, she's stopped. Look, I'm talking, and she's not."

As people test if Sky was still holding onto their voice, the Doctor takes the first step away from the back. Everyone begins spreading out slowly, relucent of being near her. Biff happily realizes Sky has let him go.

"Mrs. Silvestry?" The hostess calls to her- getting neither a response nor repeated. "Nor me. Nothing."

Charlotte left the back area and stands in the aisle, not too far behind from where the Doctor stands in the front. Looking down at Sky, she sees her light blue eyes staring up at the Doctor.

"Sky, what are you doing?" He asks her, slowly. She's still talking along with him.

Dee Dee said, "She's still doing him," in response to what's happening in front of them.

"Doctor, it's you," Hobbes tells him, moving forward. "She's only copying you."

The Doctor's eyes remain pointed to Sky. Unlike not so long ago, he isn't looking to her as a science experiment. The way his eyebrows were pushed against each other and his mouth was agape, Charlotte can see Sky stumped him. "Why me? Why are you doing this?"

"She won't leave him alone," said Dee Dee.

"Do you see? I said so. She's with them," Val whispered to her husband.

Biff agreed, "They're all together."

Hearing what he said, Charlotte turned her head ninety-degrees, facing them. "Excuse me?"

"How do you explain it, Doctor, if you're so clever?" Asked Hobbes

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted with Sky. "Sky, stop it. I said stop it. Just stop it."

Val whispers to Biff, "Look at the two of them."

The Doctor crouches down in front of the woman, "Mrs. Silvestry, I'm trying to understand. You've captured my speech. What for? What do you need?" He pauses, inspecting her. When he continues talking, she does too. "You need my voice in particular. The cleverest voice in the room. Why? Because I'm the only one who can help? Oh, I'd love that to be true, but your eyes, they're saying something else." The Doctor's voice gets louder, trying to get his message across to her. "Listen to me. Whatever you want, if it's life, or form, or consciousness, or voice, you don't have to steal it. You can find it without hurting anyone. And I'll help you. That's a promise. So, what do you think?" He finishes.

"Do we have a deal?" Sky asked him first.

The Doctor was second, "Do we have a deal?"

Her heart skipped a beat. She knew it would happen- it_ had_ to. Yet, it was still a jarring thing to happen right in front of her. "No, no, oh no," Charlotte said under her breath.

"Hold on, did she-" Dee Dee's sentence faded away.

Jethro finished her thought, "She spoke first."

"She can't have," Val denies with a shake of her head.

Hobbes corrects her, "She did," he said.

"She spoke first," repeated Jethro.

Sky's face remains stony. "Oh, look at that. I'm ahead of you," said she, her voice impassive.

"Oh, look at that," the Doctor copies, just as impassive as Sky. "I'm ahead of you."

"Did you see that?" Hobbes says, looking to everyone. "She spoke before he did. Definitely."

"He's copying her."

"Doctor, what's happening?" Hobbes calls to him.

Sky answers the professor, feigning innocence, "I think it's moved."

"I think it's moved," the Doctor repeated.

"I think it's letting me go," said Sky, her head tilting sideways.

The Doctor repeats her, shivering as if it was cold. "I think it's letting me go."

"What do you mean?" Dee Dee questions. "Letting you go from what?"

"But he's repeating now. He's the one doing it," said Biff. "It's him."

Charlotte shook her head as she looked down at him. "No, it's still in her," she says, but was left unheard by them.

Jethro whispered, "They're separating."

"Mrs. Silvestry," Hobbes calls to her. "Is that you?"

Sky's face is still expressionless. "Yes," she answered. Even when she didn't hear Sky's voice earlier, Charlotte knew for a fact something else was masquerading as her. "Yes, it's me."

"Yes," repeats the Doctor. "Yes, it's me."

"I'm coming back. Listen," said Sky, tilting her head back.

The Doctor repeats her, "I'm coming back..."

Sky moves her hands in front of her as the Doctor sits as still as she did previously. "It's me."

"... Listen," the Doctor finishes her last sentence. "It's me."

Charlotte looked down at the two, scrunching her eyebrows in deep thought. "This is the third stage," she realized. "Stage one was repeating, the second was speaking at the same time, and this is the third."

Jethro responded, "It's gone inside him."

"That is_ not_ what is happening!" Charlotte continued to insist, becoming irritated by them.

Val motions to Sky, "But look at her."

Sky looks to her hands as she moves them in front of her. "Look at me, I can move," she points out.

"Look at me..." the Doctor begins to repeat her sentence while Sky starts a new one.

"I can feel again."

The Doctor finishes the last statement then says the new one, slowly as if he were trying and losing a fight. "... I can move. I can feel again."

"I'm coming back to life."

"... I'm coming back to life."

"And look at him," she said. "He can't move."

The Doctor, looking to Sky, unblinking, repeats her. "And look at him. He can't move."

Sky gazes upward, to where the group stands. "Help me," she whispered- but, in the near silence, it was the only thing anyone heard.

"Help me," the Doctor repeated her.

Sky, still looking up, says, "Professor?"

The Doctor calls to him just as she did, "Professor?"

Charlotte looks back to Hobbes- his mouth was wide open as she caught him off guard. "Get me away from him," Sky directs the professor, referring to the Doctor.

"Get me away from him," he repeats.

"Please."

"Please," the Doctor echoes.

Hobbes looks to the group for guidance before he hesitantly walks up to the front. As Hobbes walks past Charlotte, who stands apart from them, he glances at her through his glasses. He stands as far away from the Doctor as he could, and holds his hands out for Sky. She takes them in hers and stands up with his help.

"Oh, thank you," she thanked, getting lead to the back.

His eyes are still set where she previously sat on the ground when the Doctor repeated her, "Oh, thank you."

From farther away, Charlotte faces the group... where Sky stands in the middle of their circle with her hand pressing against her side.

"They've completely separated," Jethro pointed out.

"It's in him," said Biff. "Do you see? I said it was him all the time."

Crossing her arms against her chest, Charlotte looked back at Biff with her eyes glaring daggers at him. "For God's sake! _Nothing_ is inside him!"

"Why can't you let it go? We found out your plan, give it up." Val says with an equally irritated look at Charlotte. "She's free..." the mother says in an astonished whisper as she looked at Sky. "She's saved."

Sky quickly noticed how the woman seemed so gullible, so she looks at her as spoke. "Oh, it was so cold," she described.

"Oh, it was so cold." Charlotte looked back to him when he repeats Sky's words.

Sky continues to describe how it felt, "I couldn't breathe."

"I couldn't breathe," he copies her.

Sky looks to Val, who stands across from her with her eyes showing pity towards Sky. "I'm sorry," Sky apologized.

The Doctor repeats her again, "I'm sorry."

"I must have scared you so much," added Sky, carelessly.

"I must have scared you so much."

Val quickly moves forward and wraps her arms around Sky in a hug. "No, no, it's all right. I've got you," She soothes, seemingly more crestfallen about this event than Sky herself. "Ooo, there you are, my love. It's gone. Everything's all right now."

"We should keep away from her," cautions Charlotte. While she was unsure if being around her could cause anything, but knew they should just leave her be.

"It's gone," Biff incorrectly corrects her. "It passed into him. She's clean."

Dee Dee backed her up, "That's not what happened," she said.

"Thank you for your opinion, Dee Dee," Hobbes says to her in a way that made Charlotte go sour, "but clearly Mrs. Silvestry has been released."

At that, Charlotte held back a childish eye-roll. "I really don't think-" She started, but was cut off by Val.

"Just leave her alone," Val glances to Dee Dee and her. "She's safe, isn't she?" Val looks to her son for support. "Jethro, it's let her go, hasn't it?"

He looks to Sky, not taking long to give an unsure answer. "I think so, yeah. Looks like it," Sky gives him a plastic-like tight smile. "Professor?"

"I'd say, from observation, the Doctor can't move," he said, with a point of his finger to the man. "And when she was possessed, she couldn't move, so..."

With a scowl, Charlotte looked at Hobbes venomously. "He is_ not_ possessed. It's still in her."

Biff looked at Charlotte with a sneer. "If it's still in her, why is she perfectly fine?" He snapped at her. "The only problem we've got is you and this Doctor."

"We've done_ nothing_."

Sky looks down to the Doctor menacingly. "It's inside his head."

"It's inside his head," he repeated.

"It killed the driver."

The Doctor repeats her again, "It killed the driver."

"And the mechanic," she adds, with no sign of remorse.

"And the mechanic."

"And now it wants us," Sky said, crossing her arms against her chest.

The Doctor repeats her, "And now it wants us."

"I said so," Val whisper-yelled to Biff.

Sky looks to the professor, trying to scare him onto her side. "He's waited so long."

"He's waited so long."

Next, she looks to Val. "In the dark."

"In the dark."

She looks up to Biff. "And the cold."

"And the cold."

Finally, she looks to Charlotte, attempting to get her on their side- or scare her away from making any fight. "And the diamonds."

The Doctor still repeats her every word, "And the diamonds."

"Until you came," said Sky as she looks around to all of them.

And the Doctor repeats her exclusively, "Until you came."

"Bodies so hot."

"Bodies so hot."

"With blood," Sky says in a way where it was easy for Charlotte to imagine her licking her lips.

"With blood."

Sky looks down to Val. "And pain."

"And pain."

Val has had enough, "Stop. Oh, my God, make him stop!" She cries out, terrified. "Someone make him stop."

Dee Dee shakes her head. "But it's not him, it's her. He's just repeating."

"But that's what the does," Biff shouts at her with steam coming out of his ears. "It repeats!"

The hostess watches the anarchy from farther away. "Just let her talk," she advises him, keeping her voice calm as she shakes silently.

"What do you know?" He questions her, as furious as a fire breathing dragon. "Fat lot of good you've been."

The hostess, still shaking, repeats what she said louder, "Just let her explain!"

After a moment's silence, Dee Dee began to explain, "I think- I mean, it's what Charlotte said, it repeats, then it synchronizes then it goes on to the next stage it's exactly what he said would happen."

"What, and you're on his side?" Biff frames, hardly even a second after Dee Dee finished explaining.

"No!"

Jethro, too, joins the chaotic debate. "The voice is the thing."

"She stole the voice," Charlotte added on, so Dee Dee could catch her breath. "I mean, just look at her." Her eyebrows knit together as she spoke along with her thoughts. "So, it can't 'possess' him. Which means its, uh, draining him."

In a shocked whisper, she heard the hostess say, "She's got his voice."

"But that's not true, because it can't," Val denies. "Because I saw it pass into him. I saw it with my own eyes."

Biff nods. "So did I."

"You didn't!" Dee Dee corrects them.

"It went from her, to him," Val replied, pointing from Sky to the Doctor as she did so. Val looks up to her son. "You saw it, didn't you?"

Under his breath, Jethro answers her, "I don't know."

"Oh, don't be stupid, Jethro," his _mother_ dismisses. "Of course you did."

"I suppose he was right next to her."

"Everyone saw it," Biff insists. "Everyone."

Dee Dee keeps her thought on what happened- which Charlotte thinks is the most likely, "You didn't. You're just making it up," she debated. "I know what I saw, and I saw her stealing his voice."

"She's as bad as him," Val angrily states. "Someone shut her up."

Hobbes looks down to her exceptionally. "I think you should be quiet, Dee."

"Well, I'm only saying-"

The professor interrupts her with a shout, "And that's an order!" He shouts to her, catching Dee Dee off guard. "You're making a fool of yourself, pretending you're an expert in mechanics and hydraulics, when I can tell you, you are nothing more than average at best. Now shut up."

When Sky turns things more haywire with her words, Charlotte sees a corner of her mouth pinned upward in a smirk. Almost unnoticeable. "That's how he does it," she said.

"That's how he does it," the Doctor repeats- still silently shivering on the ground.

She continues, "He makes you fight."

"He makes you fight."

"Creeps into your head," she told, glancing to Val.

The Doctor repeats, "Creeps into your head."

"And whispers."

"And whispers."

Val begins to breathe heavily as she puts a hand against her head. "Listen," Sky pays no attention to Val as she resumed.

The Doctor repeats the blonde again, "Listen."

"Just listen."

"Just listen."

While Sky still tortured the Doctor and frightened the rest beyond words, Charlotte sent a sharp glare at her. "That's him."

"That's him."

"Inside," she finishes.

"Inside."

Scared witless, Biff shouts in panic, "Throw him out!"

His wife was just as terrified. "Get him out of my head," she demands in horror.

"Yeah, we should throw him out," Biff agrees as he looks down to the Doctor alarmed.

With the chaos walking among them, Val is especially impatient with Biff. "Don't just talk about it! Just- you're useless!" She shouts at him. "Do _something!"_

"I will. You watch me," Biff hollers. "I'm going to throw him out."

Charlotte's eyes widen. "Do you think this is necessary?!" She questions hurriedly as Biff walks forward to the Doctor. She tried to pull the man back, but found herself to weak.

"Yes!" Sky exclaimed.

The Doctor repeats her, "Yes."

"Throw him out."

"Throw him out," the Doctor repeats as Biff stands behind him- hesitating to grab onto him.

Sky cheers Biff on, "Get rid of him."

"Get rid of him," the Doctor repeats.

"Now," she commands Biff.

The Doctor repeats her once again, "Now."

From behind, Biff takes hold on the Doctor- trying to pull him from his spot, however, the Doctor hardly seems to move. "Stop!" Charlotte shouted, but everyone acts like she said nothing at all. Biff groans as he continues trying to throw the Doctor out.

"Don't think we should do this," the hostess said over the commotion.

"It was your idea," Biff shouts at her as he continues to struggle. "Professor, help me!" He commands.

"I can't. I'm not-"

Biff looks up to where the professor stands. "What sort of man are you?!" He insults, "Come on!"

"Throw him out!" Pushes Val.

Biff calls for Hobbes's help again, "Come on!"

"Stop it!" Charlotte shouted, about to push them away, but found a tight grip on both of her forearms. Looking behind, she saw Val holding her with a grip harder to leave from than she'd expect.

As Val too urges for the Doctor to be thrown out, Hobbes grabs hold of one of the Doctor's arms and began pulling him towards the emergency exit. Watching uselessly, Charlotte continued to shout for them to quit as she saw the Doctor hook his foot on the bottom of a seat.

Even standing in front of Val, as she hollered to her husband to continue, her shouts still sounded like gibberish. Over the screaming gibberish, Charlotte hears Sky add more remarks in order to try and push everyone more over the edge. "Cast him out," she says with a plastic smirk.

The Doctor repeats her as he's pulled on the ground by Biff with the professor's help. "Cast him out."

"Into the sun," she continues.

"Into the sun."

Over the pandemonium, Sky still tries to dig fear deeper into them, "And the night."

"And the night."

Charlotte heard Val shout into her ear, "Get him out!" but her voice gets absorbed back into the different, shouting voices.

In the back, Jethro had his hands to his head as he looked around at the mayhem in front of him. His father was sentencing a man to his death and his own mother hardly even batted an eye to her son. Looking at him, Charlotte found herself absolutely disgusted with the way his parents were acting in front of him.

"Do it," Sky pushes, standing separate from the disorder.

The Doctor repeats her still, "Do it."

"Do it now."

The Doctor's foot unhooks from the seat, causing him to be dragged slightly faster. "Do it now," he repeats her as he's pulled across the floor. Charlotte, looking at the Doctor, knew she had to do something. She wouldn't live with herself if she didn't. But, with her hands held behind her back, she couldn't think at all.

"Faster."

As the Doctor's face hits the edge of a seat he repeats her, "Faster."

Above the shouts thrown back and forth, she still can hear Sky's unnervingly calm tone, "That's the way."

"That's the way," the Doctor repeats her.

Charlotte felt an all too familiar heat take over her body. Gulping as it got hotter and hotter she held it down. At such a fragile state the shuttle was in, she refused to leave.

"You can do it."

The Doctor repeats her, "You can do it."

A million different pins poked at her skin with a crescendo of pain as more pins join every second. Tensely, she stood through it, her face growing redder as it became hotter and hotter.

With a tilt of her head, Sky says, "Molto bene."

The Doctor repeats her not long after, "Molto bene."

"Allons-y," she said, with the stiff smirk still plastered on her face.

"Allons-y," he copies.

Remembering him saying the word to her before the ride began, the hostess looks to Sky, "That's his voice."

Sky pays her no mind and keeps the smirk painted on her face, "The starlight waits."

Before the Doctor repeats her, the hostess hesitates before saying, "She's taken his voice."

"The starlight waits," he repeated, just as the invisible pins poking at Charlotte started becoming insufferable.

"The emptiness."

He repeats. "The emptiness."

"The Midnight sky!"

Still being pulled away, he copies her. "The Midnight sky."

Quietly, but still audible, the hostess whispers, "It's her." Catching Sky's eye, her smug smile was erased from her face. The hostess glanced to the emergency exit door, with the yellow button to the right of the exit calling to Charlotte as well. "She's taken his voice!"

Seeing exactly what she had to do, Charlotte pulled Val closer to her back and roughly hit the back of her head against the front of her's. In a gasp of pain, the woman let go of her and attended to herself.

Despite the pins and needles becoming unbearable, she rushed towards Sky at the same time as the hostess. Not even thinking about it, she pushed the woman to the ground and grabbed Sky by the crook of her elbow and pulled her to the emergency exit. Keeping a tight grip on the blonde's elbow, she hit the yellow button on the side of the door.

The doors opened automatically, revealing white nothingness flooding bright light into the bus. Screaming in pain from the light and the multiplying needles pushing against her skin, Charlotte still kept a tight grip around Sky.

Not even seconds later, both of the woman were sucked out into the plains of Midnight- the doors closing behind them. The Xtonic light burnt both of them unbelievably, and not even a milisecond after being exposed to the pure agony Charlotte found herself disappearing with a screech.

She felt like she jumped out of the never-ending flame during the hottest day of the year. From the rush of pain and agony she was in, Charlotte couldn't know if she ever reappeared elsewhere or if she did at all. There was no doubt in her mind if she somehow did, she was an absolutely dead man.

To her, though, it was worth every moment of pain if it meant she could save one life. A life that's supposed to be in this universe, while she was only an intruder.


	15. the consequence of midnight

**_**She doesn't know how long it took to reappear inside of the TARDIS. **_**However, Charlotte assumes in the time between now and when she jumped from the emergency exit that she subconsciously blocked off the memories from outside the shuttle and quickly fell unconscious... Only to wake up in a room made of light shades- the walls white and the baby blue bedsheets over her body.

Blinking her eyes open, she thought perhaps the whole Midnight fiasco was a nightmare. One, that when thinking about it, made her much more awake than moments prior. However, once distinguishing herself in the TARDIS medical bay, she figured it very much wasn't one. Something felt wrong, though- something, that in her delirious state, she couldn't pinpoint.

Then, it hit her like a truck. The normal weight of her bed head was nowhere. Placing a hand on top of her head, she discovered not even a strand of hair. Not on her eyebrows, not on the top of her had, and not even one eyelash.

Alarmed, she sat up straight on the stiff hospital bed. Pulling her arms in front of her, her mouth quickly fell to the floor... both of her arms were covered in tiny, pink scars on her much tanner skin. To anyone else they were unnoticeable, but to her they stood out like a sore thumb.

Jumping up from the bed, she hissed in pain after putting too much weight too quickly on her legs. Cringing with every step, she went to the medical bay door in the hospital gown- to focused on her pain to take in the lack of IVs or medical equipment attached to her. Surely, if someone was hurt as much as she, they would've had to have something?

Opening the door, she was met with an empty TARDIS corridor. Seeing the metallic-grey walls, she immediately knew she was either in the Twelfth's or late Eleventh's era. Looking back and forth, she yet again saw no one. Disappointed, Charlotte sighed as she began her trek through the hall for anyone.

Luckily, the TARDIS could see from how she walked slowly and how an arm was stretched to the walls, furious with how she struggled with every step on her search for anyone, that the woman was in need of help. Hell, right now Charlotte wouldn't mind Amy and Rory trapped during _The Doctor's Wife_.

And seeing this, the TARDIS moved the console room much closer than it previously was.

Glancing up from her feet, Charlotte's frustrated face turned hopeful at the sound of laughter. She turns a corner and spots herself at the bottom of a set of stairs inside the console room. Spying over the railing, the ex-brunette sees the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald with their backs pressed to the TARDIS door- laughing as they pant from their run. Her eyes widen when she hears ruckus coming from outside.

"Charlotte!" Seeing her as well, the Doctor's eyes and grin widen. Ignoring the indistinguishable sounds outside, he ran to her aid. Cupping her face in his hands, he moved it around, looking for any new worrying things. Meanwhile, Charlotte looks at him confusedly as their closeness.

"Anything hurt at all? Sore?" Seeing no answer, but also giving her no time to respond, he pushed on. "Anything at all?"

Trying to speak for the first time, she found her throat completely dry. She began to cough from her attempt to speak and he let go of her face but looked at her worriedly. "You..."

"I what? If there is anything I can do, tell me Char."

"... Sound like Jackie."

He pointed a finger at her smug face. "Shut up. Clara! Help me out!"

"What about the cavemen?!" She hollered to him as they continued to bang on the doors.

"Aren't important," he replied. And so, with help from Clara, they together escorted an unhappy Charlotte to the medical bay. The TARDIS, not pleased with the Doctor allowing the cavemen to ruin her new paint job, decided to put the medical just a tad bit further away.

It was later into the day, when the TARDIS finally left the prehistoric age, and when Clara was off her own in their ship, that the Doctor was finally putting the stethoscope back into his waistcoat. "Other than your slight dehydration and pain in your left leg, everything is fine."

Charlotte set down the water bottle and looked up to the Doctor dumbly. "What about my hair? What happened to it?"

He sits on the edge of the bed beside her. "Well, when you left the shuttle, you were exposed to the high amounts of the X-tonic radiation," he pauses, thinking about what to say next. "Because of it, your hair was turned to dust and... If you were there any longer, even by a millisecond, you would've as well." She looks at the ground, unsure of what to think with that information.

"Around twelve hours ago, you appeared in the console room screaming," he adds on. Still speechless, she looked at his eyes and saw some sort of weakness she hasn't seen yet but looked so familiar. A type that shows more than it tells; one where she could see the worry for her even if it wasn't intended to be shown.

Instinctively, she responded with, "I'm sorry."

He quickly shakes his head. "No, it's not your fault. You believed you were doing the right thing and didn't know the consequences."

"But I did," she tells him, recalling how she knew Sky would be turned to dust. "I didn't even think about dying." Her eyes wrinkled when she was caught by a surprising thought. "How did I survive?" She asked the Doctor, who remained seemingly thoughtless as he looked around the medical bay.

Once he was about to say something, they were both caught off guard by Clara's voice saying, "Knock, knock," as she knocked on the open door. They looked up at her as she looked around the room in exasperation. "The TARDIS is doing it _again_." But just as the Doctor was about to stand up to help her, she looked to the right of the door and sighed when she finally found the bathroom. "There it is!" She exclaims, rushing over to it.

However, only a second later, Clara ran past the medical bay from the left.

_Next up: Hide _

A/N: quarantine as really brought out my creativity ngl. sponsored by my mom's work computer i'm using for school.


	16. the corridors of caliburn

**_Outside of the Caliburn House, a storm raged with the fury of Zeus as the winds howled along with it._** Charlotte Bolton, keeping a hand on her brunette wig (that was placed over the 2050's gel made to speed the hair growth process) and her other hand kept a tight grip on her temporary cane. Just barely underneath Clara's umbrella, she ran in the slippery mud.

The time she has spent with the Eleventh Doctor and Clara was boringly uneventful for all parties. The first day, she was bedridden and the second she quickly became accustomed to crutches. While she hasn't had any serious injuries to her left leg, it was painful to do anything with it; move, stand with, and the like. As the pain began decreasing on her ninth day there, she began physical therapy. Three days after, she switched to the cane and was still left with a limp.

And that same cane stood beside her as the three of them stood on the porch at the front of the Caliburn House. Lowering the umbrella, Clara shook the rain off it.

Spotting an ancient door knocker, Charlotte immediately used it to knock loud enough for the couple inside to hear over the thunder. After no one came, she assumed they didn't hear her and gave a second set of knocks. However, once the door did open up, she was already grouped up with the rest on the side.

The Doctor, knowing very well the man at the door couldn't see them at first, jumped in front of the open door. "Boo! Hello, I'm looking for a ghost."

Charlotte looked in front of the open door to see a middle-aged man in a brown three-piece suit and glasses. "And you are?" He asks.

Clara, holding the closed umbrella, answers with a grin. "Ghostbusters," she answered, causing Charlotte to smirk.

The Doctor flashes the psychic paper in front of Palmer. "I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor what?"

"If you like," he quickly responds. "And this is Clara and Charlotte."

Smiling tightly to him, Charlotte brushed past Palmer as she followed the Doctor inside- not surprised at all as he dashed to the tables covered in equipment. Looking at the said equipment herself, she sat down at the chair placed by the table to give her leg a rest.

Once Palmer entered the room, the Doctor left the table and stood in front of him. "Ah, but you are different," he said. "You are Alec Palmer. Member of Baker Street Irregulars, the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Specialized in espionage," the Doctor leans forward and whispers in his ear, "sabotage and reconnaissance behind enemy lines," he quits whispering in his ear. "You're a talented professor of psychology and ghost hunter." He began shaking his hand enthusiastically. "Total pleasure. Massive."

While Clara looked at the ghost hunting equipment at the table behind Charlotte, the woman noticed how Palmer wasn't overly flattered by the Doctor's compliments. "You're going to scare them off before they even know us," Charlotte said to him.

Emma, Palmer's companion, tilted her head at the Doctor's statements. "Actually, you're wrong. Professor Palmer spent most of the war as a POW."

"Actually, that's a lie told by a brave man involved in very secret operations," the Doctor continued to explain. "The type of man who keeps a Victoria Cross in a box in the attic, eh?" Flabbergasted, Emma looked over to Palmer.

From her spot, Charlotte gave a puff of air as she looked back to the vintage ghost-hunting equipment.

"But you know that, because you're Emma Grayling, the Professor's companion," the Doctor said. He puts both his hands on both of her shoulders, giving her two air kisses next to her cheeks.

Blinking, she corrected him again, "Assistant."

"It's 1974." From the plaid sweater vest Emma wore above her brown button-up alone, it took no Time Lord genius to know they were in the '70s. "You're the assistant and '_non-objective equipment,'" _he says with air-quotes. "Meaning psychic."

"I see," Charlotte mumbled to herself sarcastically.

Clara, now sitting on top of the table dangling her legs, said, "Getting that. Bless you, though."

"Relax, Emma," Palmer spoke to her calmly. "He's Military Intelligence. So, what is all this in aid of?"

Now standing beside Charlotte, the Doctor answers, "Health and Safety. Yeah, the Ministry got wind of what's going on down here. Sent us to check that everything's in order."

"They don't have the right," states Palmer.

"Don't worry, guvnor, we'll be out of your hair in five minutes." He looked down to the equipment table and suddenly got excited over a piece of equipment resembling a radio. "Oh! Oh, look. Oh, lovely. The ACR 99821." Turning her head, Charlotte watched as he leaned against the table, flicking the switch up and down, causing it to beep on and off.

"Oh, bliss. Nice action on the toggle switches." He quits messing with the switch. "You know I do love a toggle switch."

With an amused smile, Charlotte played along. "Do you?"

"Yep," he replies. "Actually, I like the word toggle. Nice noun. Excellent verb." He looks down to see Clara's hand moving toward the equipment and quickly slaps it before she touches anything. "Oi, don't mess with the settings."

The Doctor left where he leaned on the table and took the sonic out from his pocket. With it, he did a fast sweep around, scanning past Emma and Palmer.

"What's that?" Palmer asks the Doctor, who walks to the beginning of a new hall.

"Gadget," the Doctor tells, flashing the sonic towards the empty hall. "Health and Safety. Classified, I'm afraid. You know, while the backroom boffins work out a few kinks."

Standing up from the chair, with the cane's help, Charlotte stood beside Palmer as she looked at the Doctor. "Is it saying anything?" She wondered.

"It's saying that no one's been exposed to any life-threatening transmundane emanations," the Doctor turns around, facing them with his arms wide open. "So, where's the ghost?" He walks backs up to where they stoof, grabbing a lone candelabra. "Show me the ghost. It's ghost time."

A loud crack of thunder boomed from not too far away.

Leading the group through the dark corridor, the Doctor had the lit three-pronged candelabra light the way. Palmer was walking not far behind him, then Emma and Clara behind him and Charlotte behind them.

"I will not have this stolen out from under me, do you understand?" Palmer asks the Doctor as they turn a corner.

"Er, no," admitted the Doctor, awkwardly. "Not really, sorry."

Stopping in the middle of the corridor, Alec looks at the Doctor. "I will not have my work stolen, then be fobbed off with a pat on the back and a letter from the Queen. Never again. This is my house, Doctor, and it belongs to me."

Clara looks to him incredulously as the Doctor continues to look around further ahead. "This is actually your house?"

"It is."

Clara nervously laughs a little. "Sorry," she apologizes. "You went to the bank and said, _'you know that gigantic haunted house in the moors? The one the dossers are too scared to doss in? The one the birds_-'"

Getting bothered by her comments, Charlotte interrupted her. "Clara, I think we get it. Sorry." Ever since she woke up, she felt as if Clara was looking at her oddly- like she had something on her face. Taking it as Clara judging her, Charlotte became more impatient as the look continued.

"You bought it, with your money?" She finishes.

Palmer, who was looking at the Doctor suspiciously as he inspects farther down the hall, looks back to Clara. "Yes, I did, actually."

"That's incredibly brave," she compliments. Away from where they stood, something creaked.

"Listen, Major," the Doctor says to Palmer lowly as he holds the candelabra in between them- causing it to cast ominous shadows on their faces. "We just need to know what's going on here."

"For the Ministry."

"You know I can't answer that."

As Palmer considers opening up, Clara looked from Emma to Charlotte awkwardly. Emma gave a tight-smile to Charlotte, and received one back. Standing in uncomfortable silence, yet again, Clara glimpsed over to her friend.

"Very well," Palmer agrees, "Follow me." At that note, Palmer began leading the group to one of the living rooms.

Once entering, Charlotte was met with a warmly furnished room with pieces of old decorations hanging on the walls- including a painting of an older-looking man in a turban. Sitting down beside a collapsible table layered with food and drinks, her cane rested against her thigh as Clara sat beside her and Emma across from them.

Glancing behind Emma, Charlotte's shoulders slumped down when she saw the Doctor taking photographs of himself with a vintage camera as he stood on a couch. She shook her head with a small smile.

"So, what's an empathic psychic?" Clara asks her.

Emma answers the question nicely, "Sometimes I sense feelings the way a telepath can sense thoughts," she explains, as the Doctor grabs a glass bottle of milk from the table. "Sometimes, though. Not always."

"The most compassionate people you'll ever meet, empathics," the Doctor says, causing Emma to smile contently. "And the loneliest," he adds, her smile washing away from her face. "I mean exposing themselves to all those hidden feelings, all that guilt, pain and sorrow and-" by now, Emma looks down in deep thought.

"Doctor?" Clara interrupts him, seeing Emma.

"Yes?"

"Shush."

From across the room, Palmer turns around a board on wheels to face them. "Would you care to have a look?" He asks.

Standing up from her chair, Charlotte follows behind Clara to the board. Now, standing closer to it, she can make out the black and white pictures are of all the same 'ghost.' And across the board, they made up the majority of things pinned up.

"Caliburn House is over four hundred years old," Palmer speaks, looking at the pictures pinned to the board. "But she has been here much longer. The Caliburn Ghast."

The Doctor crosses his arms over his chest as he listens to Palmer, inspecting the board as he does so. Some pictures were yellowing, showing they may have been shot before Palmer's time.

"She's mentioned in local Saxon poetry and parish folk tales," he adds. "The Wraith of the Lady, the Maiden in the Dark, the Witch of the Well."

Charlotte glanced at Clara as she slides in between the Doctor and her, trying to find a better view of the board. "Is she real? As in, actually real?"

"Oh, she's real," he answers, easily. "In the seventeenth century, a local clergyman saw her. He wrote that her presence was accompanied by a dreadful knocking as if the Devil himself demanded entry."

In deep curiosity, Charlotte hangs onto what he has to say. While she does remember who the ghost really is, she can't recall much about the house's lore (which she finds interesting).

"During the war," he continues, "American airmen stationed here left offerings of tinned Spam. The tins were found in 1965, bricked up in the servants' pantry, along with a number of handwritten notes." He points to one of the handwritten notes also pinned up. "Appeals to the Ghast. For the love of God, stop screaming."

"She never changes," Clara notices. "The angle's different, the framing, but she's always in exactly the same position."

"As if she were stuck in one time," whispered Charlotte, acting as if it were a guess. "Now why's that?"

The Doctor takes a candelabra and holds it close to the pictures, having a closer inspection of them as Palmer answers their question. "We don't know. She's an objective phenomenon, but objective recording equipment can't detect her."

"Without the presence of a powerful psychic," the Doctor quickly finishes what Palmer has to say.

The other man nods. "Absolutely. Very well done."

"She knows I'm here," Emma announces, gaining our attention. "I can feel her calling out to me."

"What's she saying?" Questioned Clara.

Emma gulps down a lump in her throat. "Help me."

"The Witch of the Well," the Doctor says, looking over to Palmer. "So, where's the well?"

Palmer shows the Doctor to a table, unrolling a map of the property on to it. "There is no well on the property," he tells him. "None that we could find, anyway."

Thunder cracks as the Doctor taps Clara on top of her head, causing her to jump and turn around to face the both him and Charlotte standing behind her. "You coming?" He whispers to her as Emma and Palmer conversed beside a table with the map covering the top of it.

"Where?" She questions, just as quiet.

In an unenthusiastic whisper, she answered. "Find the ghost."

"_You're _going?" She questions, surprised.

"Um, yes," Charlotte says, unsure why that would be a problem.

"You're still healing," She states, much to her annoyance- to her, it was ridiculous, as she wouldn't have come if she thought it wouldn't be in her ability. "And why would I do that?"

"Because you want to. Come on," the Doctor began walking away with the candelabra.

Charlotte stood beside Clara as she whisper-shouts to him, "Well, I dispute that assertion!"

"Eh? I'm giving you a face. Can you see me? Look at my face," He nods his head towards where the corridor begins, but his eyes stay pointed to them.

Charlotte moved to stand beside the Doctor at the open doorway to the hallway. "Fine," said Clara, walking up to them. "Dare me."

"I dare you," he says. "No takesies backsies."

"I'm coming too," Charlotte stated, keeping her head held high because she knew very well he wouldn't agree.

The Doctor, still whispering, looks down at her. "You're staying here."

"No, _I am not."_

"Yes, you are," he tells her. "I don't know what could happen, and you still are healing."

She exhaled deeply. "I'll be fine and _extra _safe. I wouldn't have come if I thought I couldn't handle walking in a dark hallway."

"You need to stay back," he restates with a huff.

Looking at Emma, she saw the empath glancing away from them. She sighed. "Fine." Pointing a finger at him, she looked up at him seriously. "I get to pick the next place, though."

"No complaints."

Clara takes the candelabra, leading the way down the hall- the Doctor following behind. Before they went too far down, Emma calls to them. "The music room is the heart of the house," she says.

They turn around for a second, but after Emma's advice they soon start traveling through the corridors of Caliburn again- leaving Charlotte alone with Emma and Palmer (who were too wrapped up in themselves to pay her any mind). She moved back to where she sat before.

"Why didn't you go with them?" Emma asks her, only a minute or so after Clara and the Doctor left.

She looked up at Emma as she sat down in front of her. "Oh, I just can't. I swear I usually do, though."

"Sorry."

Charlotte shook her head. "Everything's all right. Nothing to be sorry over."

As if she were thinking hard on something, Emma's eyebrows pushed together. "But… it is."

Straightening her back, Charlotte looked to the woman with a poker-face. While she was curious what she was feeling, she did _not _want her to read her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She hesitates before continuing. "I can sense that you're hurt."

Nervously, Charlotte laughed as if it were a joke. She held up her hands, each covered in tiny scars like wallpaper. "No kidding!"

"No, not in that way," Emma corrects her. "Like something-"

Charlotte thought she knew exactly what she'd say. Despite claiming she was 'over it', she kept coming back to Midnight when she was alone, with nothing to think about. Her mind just drifted to how the bright light burnt her skin like a never-ending flame. Just a millisecond on that planet was a millennium.

She interrupted Emma, not wanting any more reminder of her Hell. "It doesn't matter," she cracked, standing up from her spot. "They're heading for the music room, right?"

Slightly confused, Emma nods her head. "Yes?" As she began to walk away, Emma's eyes followed her. "Where are you going?"

"The music room," she replied nonchalantly, going to the open double-doors.

Emma tried to protest, but all of her attempts were easily ignored. Whilst Charlotte did agree with her in the fact she should stay in the living room, she just couldn't. If she wished to be safe, she would've locked herself in a far off room in the TARDIS the second she arrived.

Maybe, as Charlotte began walking down the corridor, she was finally realizing how she pushed down nearly all thoughts of that planet until just now.

She couldn't help it. Squinting in the dark hallway, she felt the itch of burning sunlight on her arm. There was no doubt in her mind that it'll never leave her. But this wasn't something she wanted to talk about. To everyone else, she's moved on. And why, after two weeks of shoving the thought as far back as she could, is she finally thinking about it?

She smacks her head. _How stupid am I? _Digging through her jacket's pocket, she felt around inside the bigger-on-the-inside pockets for a second before yanking out a torch. Turning it on, Charlotte nearly shrieked when she was met with a small painting hung on the wall.

Sighing, she looked at the painting with a small laugh at herself for getting so scared. Hung on the wall was the portrait of a brown-skinned woman with a dark braid falling over her shoulder. Charlotte stared at it longer… feeling something in the pit of her brain.

She shook her head and began walking down the hall again.

For a minute, nothing else happens. The thunder continued to storm with the rage of a wasp and the corridor was as silent a mouse. Going through an open door she found herself in the kitchen, she scrunched her nose at the impossibly dirty dishes living beside the sink.

Charlotte walks through the open exit on the other side and begins walking through the corridor once again, disregarding her need to sit down.

Beginning to hear whispers, she began to inch towards the door she overheard the said whispers from. Looking inside, she spots the Doctor and Clara in the music room. "Your pants are so on fire," he remarks to her as he looked at the harp in the back corner.

Clara giggles a little as the Doctor tries to begin scanning the room, the screwdriver stutters instead of the expected usual buzzing. As the Doctor, with his back turned, tries to fix what was wrong with the sonic (by hitting it against his hand and blowing warm air on it) Charlotte walked into the music room.

"Oh, Charlotte!" Clara gasps, not seeing her walk in. "Wait, what are you doing here?"

"Long story. I don't like empaths," she said bluntly. "Decided to find you both."

As if he were both amused and annoyed, he gave her a look. "You shouldn't have come," he states.

She shrugged. "I know," agrees Charlotte, although begrudgingly.

"Never mind that," Clara interrupts, looking toward the Doctor- who, at the moment, stands in between the two. Quietly, she whispers, "Do you feel like you're being watched?"

At her word, Charlotte felt the hairs on the back of her neck stick up. "Yeah. 'Bout you, Doctor?"

The Doctor slides the sonic into his jacket's pocket. "What does being watched feel like?" He asks, looking from Clara to Charlotte. "Is it that funny tickly feeling on the back of your neck?"

Clara nods. "That's the chap."

The Doctor moves forward and faces the two. "Then yes, a bit. Well, quite a big bit." He then starts to pace around the front of the music room.

It was a moment later they heard the wood floor creak in the back of the room. Glancing back, Charlotte saw absolutely nothing, however she still felt as if she was being watched.

"I think she's here," Clara says, looking away from the creak at the same time as her.

With his back facing them, the Doctor tells the two quietly, "Cold spot." He turns to face them. "Spooky."

For some reason, that simple word alone brought a smile to Charlotte's face. He sidestepped to the left. "Cold." He moved forward. "Warm." Then backward. "Cold." Farther back. "Warm." Forward. "Cold." As he continues to do this, Charlotte look over to Clara- who gives her another awkward smile in return.

The Doctor reaches into his pocket and grabs a piece of chalk- using it, he surrounds the area where he stands in a circle.

Alarmed, Clara looked behind herself. "Doctor?" She calls, but he doesn't seem to notice her as he finishes creating the chalk circle. "Doctor!"

"What?" He questions as he buzzes the sonic around the circle.

"I'm not happy."

From the way he looks to the sonic screwdriver, they could tell he agrees. "No," he said, turning around to walk back into the corridor.

"Hey!" Clara promptly follows after him. With an ounce of dread of walking more, Charlotte follows her over the chalk circle.

Once the two caught up to him, Charlotte decided to slide her flashlight back into her jacket- as she no longer needed it because of Clara's candelabra. They walked through the dark corridor silently, with the Doctor leading them. All of their heads point to a sudden loud slam.

"What was that?" Clara whisper-yelled.

The three looked back and forth to each other. And with a swoop of the wind, the three candles on the candelabra extinguish at once. Charlotte's eyes widened as her breath hitched- not thinking it'll happen this soon- and looked at her friends. They moved forward, and Clara took the unlit candles with her.

Stopping at the stained glass window, they watched as ice appeared on the outer edges and began inching towards the middle. Stepping forward to watch it happen closer, the Doctor rubs his hands together as it grows colder. Not long later, another slam caught them off guard.

"Okay," said Clara, in between her short breaths. "What is that?"

With his elbow propped against the wall, he tries to give an answer. "It's a very loud noise. It's a very loud, very angry noise..."

"Very scary, too," added Charlotte as she became more worried by the second.

"What's making that noise?" Clara questions again, this time more demanding.

The Doctor scratches behind his right ear. "I don't know. Are you making it?"

_BANG! BANG!_

The Doctor rushes away from against the wall and stood in the spot in between the two woman, taking hold of Charlotte's hand without a second thought. She would've let go immediately if it weren't for how warm his hand was in comparison to the chilly Caliburn- even with the chill of a ring.

Clara lets out a loud exhale of breath. "Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"I may be a teeny, tiny bit terrified..."

He looks at her gleefully. "Yes?"

"But I'm still a grown-up..." she continues.

The Doctor began to squeeze Charlotte's hand with his as a cheerful smile spread to his face. "Mainly, yes, and?"

"There's no need to actually hold my hand."

The Doctor's bright smile drops quickly. "Clara."

"Yeah?"

"I'm not holding your hand." To show her, he holds up both of his hands and Charlotte's right.

Charlotte's heart dropped as she looked to the corridor behind them… to see it completely empty. Just a second later, they screamed in terror. Running away first, she pulled the Doctor with her as she did- however, he surpassed Charlotte soon and began pulling her down the stairs as Clara ran in behind them.

Downstairs, Palmer stares at a concave black thing, floating in mid-air with his mouth wide open in shock. In his hands, he awkwardly held a camera. The Doctor lets go of Charlotte's hand and runs straight to him as she stands near Emma.

"Has this happened before?" He questions urgently, buzzing the sonic to the floating black thing.

"Never."

He slid the sonic back into his pocket. "Camera. Camera!" Palmer hands him the camera and the Doctor began taking photo after photo of the thing.

For a moment, Charlotte was completely enamored by the cracking black concave. She glimpsed over to Emma, wanting to see if she was looking to it too, instead, she was staring off in the opposite direction.

"Emma?" She said her name gently, in an attempt to catch her attention.

In doing so, she instead caught Clara's attention. The next thing she did, still standing on the bottom steps, was call for him. "Doctor?"

He immediately spins around to Emma, quickly snapping as many photos as possible. Charlotte backed up, trying not to be in the way of the shots as Emma continues to stare blankly at the wall. Then, the brunette collapsed- falling into Palmer's arms. She let out a large breath, as if she just ran a marathon.

"Doctor," Clara calls for him again.

All of their heads turn to her, expecting something exceptionally important. That's what they got.

On the wall behind the staircase, was the words _'Help Me' _frozen on the wall glowing a parchment like yellow. Bewildered, the Doctor walks halfway up the stairs for a closer inspection. In a blink of an eye, both the floating black concave and the _'Help Me' _disappear without a trace- as if they were ever there in the first place.

Emma, Clara, and Charlotte sat in the living room from earlier alone as Palmer and the Doctor developed this night's film. The three, sitting beside the collapsible table with food again, but decided on drinking whiskey. After one sip, Emma had a look of revulsion on her face. "I'd rather have a nice cup of tea," she said.

Clara nodded in agreement. "Me too. Whiskey is the eleventh most disgusting thing ever invented."

Charlotte set her glass on the table beside Emma's. "My dad's cooking being the first," she remarked, feeling sick at the thought of his lasagna. Yawning, she completely forgot of the sloppy lasagna.

"So, you and Professor Palmer," Clara began as she fixed a cup of tea, "have you ever... you know?"

"No."

Clara paused making the tea to look down to Emma. "Why not? You know how he feels about you, don't you? You, of all people?" Clara then carries on fixing the tea.

"I don't know," admits Emma. "People like me, sometimes we get our signals mixed up. We think people are feeling the way we want them to feel, you know, when they are special to us, when really there's nothing there."

Charlotte nods, being reminded of her blindness to Ian. "I know what you're talking about, but I think- no, _know_ that it's there."

"How do you know?" Asked Emma.

Clara hands them both their finished cup of tea. "Because it's obvious," she answered for her. "It sticks out like a big chin." Charlotte smirked as she took her first sip of the steaming tea.

"What about you and the Doctor?" Emma asked as Clara sat down with her cup.

Clara nearly spat out her tea as she was completely shocked at the idea. "Oh, I don't think so."

The empath turns to the other. "What about you?"

Turning red, Charlotte began stuttering out her answer, "Oh, um, no too… just had a bad breakup, you know how it goes."

"Good."

Confused by what Emma meant, Clara scrunched her eyebrows together. "Sorry?"

"Don't trust him," she warns while she looks directly at the two. "There's a sliver of ice in his heart."

Both Clara and Charlotte looked at each other, prepared to ask more questions but that was when they heard both of their names be called out by the Doctor.

They ran through the rain back to the TARDIS. Clara had pulled out her small, red umbrella once again and ran under it. When she stopped a few yards in front of the police box, Charlotte stopped beneath the umbrella as well.

"I've got this weird feeling it's looking at me," says Clara, looking at the TARDIS from a distance. "It doesn't like me."

"You're right," responded Charlotte, "she doesn't like you much. I'm sure you'll get there soon, though." Nudging her, Clara looked at Charlotte relived- as if it has been troubling her for weeks. "Maybe." Clara's smile dropped as Charlotte smile grew slightly.

"Bit like a cat, isn't she?" The Doctor pointed out. "A bit slow to trust." He gave Clara a friendly nudge and ran through the rain back to the TARDIS. Charlotte left Clara's side and went after the Doctor. She pushed the door open just as it was about to shut, but before she could do anything, it fell shut when she walked in.

Hearing a knock on the door, Charlotte mentally slapped herself. Opening the door, Clara came in with her umbrella lowered. While closing the door behind her, she hears her mutter a 'thank you' as she walked in.

Charlotte hums a response back and moved past her and leaned against the metal barrier behind the console

"Hey, you have a place to keep this?" Clara asks, motioning to the umbrella.

"I've got one," the Doctor responds, pointing to an empty spot beside Clara. He looks back to it. "Or I had one. I think I had one." He looks under the console for it. "Look around. See if you find it. Did I have one? Am I going mad?" He asked himself.

Charlotte shrugged. "You have been for a while."

He looked over to her. "Thank you- No, not in here!" He immediately was called to action when he spotted Clara shaking the water out from her umbrella. He snatched the umbrella from her hands. "How do you expect her to like you? She's soaking wet. It's a health and safety nightmare." He threw the closed umbrella onto a chair.

"Sorry," she apologized to the TARDIS, who made an unhappy groan. "So, where are we going?"

"Nowhere," he answered as he maneuvered the TARDIS' controls. "We're staying right here. Right here, on this exact spot, if I can work out how to do it."

Charlotte moves to stand beside Clara as she corrects her own question. "So _when_ are we going?"

"Oh, that is good," the Doctor tells her, looking up from the console. "That is top-notch." He gave her a high-five and Charlotte a fist bump. Soon after, he promptly left for the lower level of the console room.

Clara shouts to him as he moves down the stairs. "And the answer is?"

"We're going always," he answers, shuffling through a closet at the beginning of a maze of corridors as Charlotte moved to lean over the railing to try and see what he was looking for.

Clara stands beside her. "We're going always..." she repeated.

"Totally."

When he excitedly pulls out his bright orange environment suit from the closet, Clara says, "That's not actually a sentence."

"Well, it's got a verb in it." Then the Doctor stands in front and holds up the suit proudly to them. "What do you think?"

Clara scrunched her nose. "Color's a bit boisterous."

"It looks great…"

"Thank you," responded the Doctor, not seeing Charlotte's obvious lie. "I think it brings out my eyes."

Clara retorted with, "Makes my eyes hurt."

Disappointedly, the Doctor lowers the suit as Charlotte laughs lightly at Clara's comment.

_Next up: Hide II (The Corridors of Caliburn II)_

A/N: AHHHH THANK YA'LL SO MUCH FOR JUST OVER 100 BOOKMARKS 33


	17. the corridors of caliburn II

_The first place the Doctor decided to bring them was the Earth as it was still cooling. _While he stands outside in his environment suit, taking a photograph where the Caliburn House will eventually stand, Charlotte sat down in one of the console room's seats- fighting the urge to have some shut-eye.

As she did, Clara went up to the open doors... trying to have a peek of the fiery landscape. Glimpsing over at Clara, the brunette paid minimal attention to her.

"Back off!" The Doctor warns, walking past Clara as she held up her hands. "Hot suit, hot, hot."

Charlotte rose from the seat and stood on the Doctor's other side as Clara asked him, "When are we?"

Through the suit's mask, he had to shout to be heard. "About six billion years ago. It's a Tuesday, I think."

The next stop they made was to when a bright, tropical jungle filled with life had power over the Caliburn land. A gigantic firefly flew past the group and swooped back into the jungle of green leaves. Once the Doctor took the photograph, they returned to the TARDIS and began their trip to the next destination.

In another era, they went to the house in the victorian era. A lady in a complex dress and a man in a top hat walked up the steps at the front of the home. From a distance, the Doctor takes photographs with a vintage camera. Spinning around, he faced Charlotte and Clara with a smile.

At last, they made their final stop to a devastated Earth- the Doctor was just about to step out wearing the same environment suit as before. Looking behind him, Charlotte craned her neck to see a desert for as far as her eyes could see. Beside her, Clara did the same.

They've just seen a whole timeline of Earth. To both Charlotte and Clara, who've both only traveled with the Doctor a few weeks, they thought it was so surreal... seeing their home in this state. No words could explain how they felt as they looked out to the deserted plains.

"Back in a mo," said the Doctor, with the mask on again. "Are you both alright?" He asked once noticing their forlorn mood.

Clara looked back at him. "Totally. Peachy keen."

"Yeah, yeah..." Charlotte added, giving a smile to the ground as she sat at the edge of her seat.

"Okay then," he began about to leave when he added, "Well, don't press any buttons or pull any levers or make any funny faces." He hesitated to leave again. "Actually, don't move. Stand... or sit, completely still. Don't breathe. Well, you can breathe, but shallow breaths." Then, at last, he went outside to take the photo.

Charlotte looked up to the scanner with Clara- as it shows the Doctor outside on the red planet all could vividly remember having lush trees towering high above and the beautiful mansion now crumbled to only a bit of a roof and a chimney lying on the ground long forgotten.

"This is crazy," Charlotte whispered breathlessly. Clara nodded, looking at the monitor.

The Doctor took the photograph and returned to the console after- placing the helmet on it with an ecstatic smile. "Oh, what's wrong?" He asked, his smile drooping when he noticed Clara's eyes glued to the scanner and how Charlotte was zoned out.

"Did the TARDIS say something to you? Are you being mean?"

"Doctor," Still sitting in her spot, Charlotte responded, catching his attention. "It isn't that... The three of us just saw the life cycle of Earth. That's _mental_." She laughed nervously.

The Doctor remained silent when Clara looks to him. "You're okay with that?"

"Yes."

"How can you be?"

He opened his arms out. "The TARDIS, she's time." He continued despite Clara looking lost at him. "We... Wibbly vortex and so on."

She gazes out to the Earth in the scanner. "That's not what I mean."

"Okay, some help." He paused, thinking of what to say next. "Context? Cheatsheet? Something?"

Clara immediately shoots her head over to him. "I mean, one minute you two are in 1974 looking for ghosts, but all you have to do is open your eyes and talk to whoever's standing there." Charlotte looked up to her, caught off guard from being mentioned.

"To you, I haven't been born yet, and to you, I've been dead one hundred billion years." She looked back and forth from the Doctor and Charlotte. "Is my body out there somewhere, in the ground?"

The Doctor nods, but Charlotte saw him hesitate for a second. "Yes, I suppose it is." He walked towards the stairs that led to the level below them.

"But here we are, talking," She said, the Doctor stopping at the top of the stairs as she did. "So I am a ghost. We're all ghosts to you." At that word, Charlotte stood up with her cane as the Doctor stood still with his back to Clara and her.

"We must be nothing," she finished.

The Doctor turns around, looking to the two kindly. "No. No. You're not that."

Clara stops him when he was halfway down the stairs. "Then what are we?" She questioned him. "What can we possibly be?"

Charlotte leaned forward against the banister as she watched in interest at what he'd have to say next. Looking up to them, he answered her, "You are the only mystery worth solving." Utterly confused, Clara watched him leave to get changed.

Soon after checking her hair growth, just about three inches, and adding some more gel to it, they returned to the Caliburn's candlelit living room. First seeing Palmer, who stood at the table with the projector, the Doctor hands him the film of photographs to be developed. Besides the board covered with notes and pictures on the 'ghost,' Clara and Emma stood chatting.

Charlotte, standing with the Doctor and Palmer, held one film up to the light for both her and the Doctor to see. "It was the one we took in the 23rd century," she told him. It wasn't of a ghost, it was just one the three decided to take together.

"Should put that in your book," he commented.

Knowing that'll be a good idea, she slid the film in her pocket to be developed later. "And how do you know about my book?" She asked him, recalling the book she found with blurred out photos weeks ago.

"You told me." He set the film he was looking at back. "Right, done." Clapping his hands together he then said, "That's it. Gather round, gather round. Roll up, roll up."

Clara and Emma joined them as Palmer uses the negatives for the slides, and once he set the last one in the Doctor activated the projector with the sonic. The projection showed a picture of the ghast from when Emma spotted it not too long ago.

"The Ghast of Caliburn," He began. "Never changing. Trapped in a moment of fear and torment. But, what if she's not? What if she's just trapped somewhere time runs more slowly than it does here?" He began speaking faster than light. "What if a second to her was a hundred thousand years to us? And what if somebody has a magic box." He whispered to Clara and Charlotte, not so secretly, "A blue box, probably. What if said somebody could take a snapshot of her, say, every few million years?" With every click of a changing slide, it zooms in closer until they see the clear photo of a dark woman in white overalls running.

He continued speaking much slower and quieter than before and stood in front of the screen. "She's not a ghost. But she's definitely a lost soul. Her name is Hila Tacorian." Emma stood behind the Doctor, looking toward Hila fondly. "She's a pioneer, a time traveler, or at least she will be in a few hundred years."

Palmer shook his head. "Time travel's not possible. The paradoxes-"

"-Resolve themselves," the Doctor interrupted. "By and large."

Emma still looked to the still image of Hila. "How long has she been alone?"

"Well, time travels a funny old thing," he said to Emma. "I mean, from her perspective, she crash-landed..." he looked to his watch. "Three minutes ago."

Her eyebrows scrunched together. "Crash landed? Where?"

"She's in a pocket universe. A distorted echo of our own," he explained. "They happen sometimes but never last for long." To show, he pulled a red and blue deflated balloons from his pocket. Blowing up first the blue balloon then the red one and held them up to Emma. "Our universe," the blue. "Hila Tacorian's here, in a pocket universe," the red. "You're a lantern, shining across the dimensions, guiding her home, back to the land of the living." He touched the balloons together, and the red deflates.

"But what's she running from?" asked Clara.

The Doctor snaps, stuffing the deflated balloons into his pocket. "Well, that's the best bit. We don't know yet. Shall we see?" He used the sonic to show the next slide- a monster hiding behind a tree on four, spider-like legs.

All of their eyes were wide and glued to the creature on the screen. Charlotte felt her stomach twist looking at it looked straight from a child's nightmare. The Doctor looks to the picture as well. "Oh..."

"What is that?" Clara wondered, standing beside Charlotte.

He didn't turn his head to answer. "I don't know." He faces the rest of them again, clapping his hands together. "Still, not to worry."

Worried for Hila, Emma questioned, "So, what do we do?"

"Not we, you." He stood in front of Emma, talking much quieter. "You save Hila Tacorian because you are Emma Grayling. You are the lantern." He leaned down to her ear and muttered, "The rest of us are just along for the ride, I'm afraid." He backed up and began speaking to them all. "We need some sturdy rope and a blue crystal from Metebelis Three. Plus some Kendal Mint Cake." He then left the living room with Clara and Charlotte following him to the TARDIS; outside the storm had finished.

Clara dangled her legs as she sat on the console level, and Charlotte sat on the stairs looking over the banister to the Doctor as he shuffled through a cubby beneath for supplies. "Can't you just..." began Clara. "You know?"

He continued to look, finding a plastic bottle of water. "What?"

"Fly the TARDIS into the parallel universe?"

"Ah, it's not a parallel universe. It's a pocket universe," he corrected, moving to lean against the ledge- which was below Clara's feet and next to where Charlotte sat. "Plus, it is collapsing. I mean, the TARDIS could get in there all right, but entropy would bleed her power sources, you see? Trap her there until the entire universe decayed back into the quantum foam." Charlotte narrowed my eyes, not sure about what he was saying.

"Which would take about... three minutes, give or take, you know?"

A silver cable, as thick as a mug, ran from the TARDIS with other cables wound around it back into Caliburn. In the music room, the cable ended at a large crystal in a cradle that stood at the same height as Charlotte. Placed in a circle around the crystal were many clocks- some modern-looking and others as old as the mansion.

Charlotte stood next to Clara as she inspected the crystal. "What is that?" She asked the Doctor when he passed them.

He stopped to answer, "A subset of the Eye of Harmony." He slapped her hand away as it inched toward it.

"I don't get-" Charlotte began before he interrupted her.

"-Course you don't. I barely do myself. Right," As he walked past Emma he said to her, "You sit down." He takes a wired 'crown' with a dark blue gem in the middle and placed it on top of her head. "All the way from Metebelis Three."

Emma adjusted the crown in her seat as she asked him, "What does it do?"

The Doctor moves around the room, beginning the tick of the clocks that surround the subset of the Eye of Harmony. "It amplifies your natural abilities- like a microphone or a pooper scooper!"

"What exactly is this arrangement?" queried Palmer.

The Doctor answers as Clara helps him into a harness. "A psychochronograph."

"Forgive me," Palmer says from on the other side of the arrangement. "But isn't it all a bit, well... make do and mend?"

Clara was buckling the back of the harness when the Doctor responded, "Non-psychic technology won't work where I'm going." He buckled the front of the harness. "Listen, all I need to do is dive into another dimension, find the time traveler, help her escape the monster, get home before the entire dimension collapses and Bob's your uncle."

Charlotte moved to stand in front of him, standing on her own for a second to fix his lopsided bowtie. "Easy peasy."

"Not really," he looks down at her, not getting the sarcasm. "I have to rescue a trapped time traveler before the dimension collapses, how is that easy?"

She was about to continue when Emma piped up with a question. "Doctor? Will it hurt?"

As he began to answer, Charlotte moved to stand away from the area the light would appear- standing beside Clara. He bent down to Emma, who still sat in the chair. "No." He straightened. "Well, yes. Probably. A bit. Well, quite a lot. I don't know. It might be agony. To be perfectly honest, I'll be interested to find out." He looked to all of them with a tight smile.

Emma looks to Palmer for support, who nodded back. The clocks continued to tick as she looked back to the Doctor and took a few deep breaths. She closed her eyes. "I'm talking to the lost soul that abides in this place. I'm talking to Hila Tacorian."

Charlotte grew nervous as the Doctor grabbed the end of the rope on the winch and the surrounding clocks either began speeding up or going backward.

Emma inhaled deeply, looking forward. Then, she closed her eyes once more as an electronic whizzing came from the front. Seeing the dark disc floating in midair, everyone began to grow more and more anxious as it began to crack before them.

The Doctor, still holding onto the rope, attached it to the harness. The disc then shattered, causing a bright light to appear at the doorway with a mighty wind. Charlotte's 'hair' hit against her face as she squinted her eyes at the light.

The Doctor looks over at them. "See? The Witch of the Well! It's a wormhole!" He tightened the harness. "A reality well! a door to the echo universe!" To Emma, he shouted, "Ready?!"

"READY!"

Turning back around, the Doctor faces the wormhole. He cracks his neck then shrugged. "Geronimo." The rope began to unwind from the winch as he jumps into the wormhole and gets farther and further away from where he started.

They could only watch the white light, for any hope. Charlotte, too, had her eyes glued to it- while she knew it'd be scary for everyone else, she didn't expect to be afraid for him too.

Distressed, Clara shouts out, "Doctor!" Moving closer to the light, she was held back by Palmer.

Emma watches the wormhole as she calls for him. "Doctor, Doctor!" She shouted for him, "Come home. Doctor, come home!"

Palmer wisely still held back Clara from running after the Doctor, and Charlotte kept a watchful eye on the wormhole for any sign of the Doctor and Hila just like everyone else.

"Doctor!" Emma shouted again, reaching out a hand to the wormhole. "Doctor... come home!"

With the wind surging at them with the strength of a bodybuilder, it became difficult for Charlotte to look towards the wormhole without squinting. Even as she did squint, the bright wormhole was still just as overwhelming. Looking to Palmer, she sees him still holding Clara back. However, his grip seemed to loosen as he became focused on the wormhole.

Emma called for the Doctor again, "Doctor we're here!" She shouted, still holding her hand to the wormhole. "Doctor... Doctor!" She lowered her arm and gripped onto the chair arms. "I'm not strong enough!"

"Just a few more seconds!" Clara shouted back to her.

Emma screamed in pain, her head falling back as she continued to keep the connection up. She kept it up as the three others in the room spotted the rope on the winch being tugged. Without a single thought, Charlotte moved to stand beside Palmer as he began to crank the rope.

Believing it would be the Doctor to come up, Clara kept her eye on the wormhole for him. Charlotte kept her eye on it too, but for Hila instead- remembering he would be down there longer than desired. With a cry, Hila fell into the room just as Emma gasped and fell to her knees and immediately met with Palmer's aid.

The portal began to dim without the support of Emma keeping it up. "No!" Shouted Clara, just before the portal disappeared without a trace. She ran to the spot it was, looking to it with her eyes wide with fear for the Doctor.

Charlotte turns her attention to Hila, who lies on the ground out of breath. Going over to her side, she crouched onto the ground. Sticking a hand in her pocket, Charlotte took out the unused water bottle the Doctor insisted she brought earlier 'just in case' and handed it to her. "Here, drink some water, take it easy," she said as Hila drank it in large gulps in between breaths.

Clara storms passed them, up to Palmer and Emma. "Wake up!" She shouted at Emma. "Open the thing."

Emma sobs into her friend's chest. "I'm sorry," she managed to say.

"Don't be sorry," Palmer reassures her, stroking her brown hair. "Don't be. What you did..."

"Wasn't enough," interrupted Clara. "She needs to do it again."

Instead of Palmer, who was to busy caring for Emma, Charlotte responded. "Clara, she can't do it." The distressed brunette looked over at Charlotte as if she were slapped in the face.

Aware any moment she'll make a run to the TARDIS, Charlotte stood up. "We'll have to find a way without her."

Clara remained insistent. "She _has _to! There's no other way." She looked back to Emma, who sat tiredly on the ground with Palmer's full attention. Clara stood up. "We can't leave him." She runs out of the music room with Charlotte following behind her.

When the TARDIS came into sight, Clara rushed over to her with Charlotte falling in behind her, meeting her as she pulls on the TARDIS' locked doors. "Let me in, you grumpy old cow!" An electronic buzz alerted them both, turning around they saw a copy of Clara standing.

Clara looked to her copy astound. "Whoa." She looked to herself, surprised. "What's this now?

The second Clara flickered, showing how it was really a projection. "The TARDIS Voice Visual Interface. I'm programmed to select the image of a person you esteem." She looked directly to Clara, clarifying she selected the person she esteemed. "Of several billion such images in my databanks, this one best meets the criterion."

"Oh, you are a cow!" Exclaimed Clara, with a roll of her eyes.

Charlotte looked at her, done with her insults to their last hope. "Clara, not now!" She looked over to the TARDIS Voice Visual Interface. "We need you to help us bring the Doctor back."

The Interface glitched for a second before morphing into a woman with light brown skin and large brown curls covering her shoulders. Charlotte's eyes widened in realization that her sister, Gina, stood before her. Gina- the Interface- didn't as much as blink before continuing, "The Doctor is in the pocket universe."

She pushed down the long-gone memories of my sister. "Can't you enter the pocket universe?" She questioned.

The Interface glitched. "The entropy would drain energy from my heart. In four seconds, I'd be stranded. In ten, I'd be dead."

Before Charlotte could say anything else, Clara responded, "You're talking but all I hear is, 'Meh, meh, meh.'" The Interface looked to Clara with no emotion whatsoever. "Come on, let's go!" The projection disappeared. "Who even was she anyway?" asked Clara.

"My sister."

Knowing she struck a chord, she looked down. "Sorry..." She turns back to the TARDIS doors, trying to open it, but they were locked once again. "Do you have your key?"

Sheepishly, Charlotte smiled. "Funny thing... I've never got one." Groaning, Clara tried to open the doors again but failed.

"Here, let me try," offered Charlotte, moving to the side, Clara didn't expect anything to happen for her either. But, the doors opened so easily the two looked at each other with wide smiles and ran inside. The second the door closed behind Clara, the TARDIS started up on her own.

Throwing her cane onto a seat, Charlotte sprinted over to the console and hanged onto one of the handlebars. "Great ready," she said to Clara, who remained cool. "Traveling to different universes aren't pretty," she tells her, recalling the time with MIckey, Rose, and the Tenth Doctor.

Just as they began to travel, they screamed as the TARDIS pushed her boundaries of travel. Twisting and turning them around as she spun through the vortex. Multiple times, Charlotte's feet left the ground and Clara's shrieks were covered with her own. As the TARDIS flew, they heard a loud _thunk! _As if they hit something.

The hit made Charlotte want to hold on tighter. For a brief moment, she got a glance at the scanner- in that second she read only how something attached to the TARDIS' exterior. Roaring with laughter it was as if for a second she didn't think they could do it.

"We did it!" Charlotte shouted to her. She shouted something back, but it was taken over by our screams as the TARDIS took another sharp turn.

At last, the TARDIS landed back at Caliburn. Clara and Charlotte both panted after all the TARDIS' sharp turns and upside-down spirals. Clara sat on the ground, only one hand hanging onto the console, heaving. Charlotte looked down at her as she asked, "Will that happen often?"

She shrugged, chuckling a little. "Can't tell." Giving her a hand, she helped her up from the ground. Without saying another word, they left the TARDIS.

Standing outside the TARDIS, the Doctor and Clara exchanged tired high-fives. He heads up to Emma, bending down he puts a hand on her shoulder. Seeing she was alright, he straightened and looked through the window. The post-storm light floods into the room, giving them a good change from the moody darkness. Charlotte smiled.

With the weather cleared, the front hall of the mansion has been opened to the outside and beside each other the Doctor and Charlotte walked down it as Clara, Palmer, and Hila stepped outdoors. "There's nothing wrong with her," she told him as he leans against the door with his arms crossed.

"I can't believe I'm saying this," he began. "I don't believe you."

She couldn't argue with him- Clara's case was weird. "I don't blame you."

Emma walks up behind the two. "You wanted a word?" She said, looking to the Doctor.

"Well, if that's..."

Emma interrupted him. "That's fine." She smiled at him lightly. He uncrossed his arms, looking directly at Emma. "You didn't come here for the ghost, did you?" She guessed correctly, of course.

"No," Charlotte told her. "We came here for you, actually."

She looked back to them, confused. "Why?"

"I needed to ask you something," replied the Doctor.

"Then ask."

He hesitated a second before responding. "Clara..."

"Yes?"

He moves to stand in front of the empath. "What is she?"

Emma answered easily. "She's a girl."

"Yes, but what kind of girl?" He pushed. "Specifically."

As he turned to look out of the doorway, she answered. "She's a perfectly ordinary girl," She started. "Very pretty, very clever." Not paying attention, he hummed in response. "More scared than she lets on."

He looks back at Emma, stopping at the doorway. "And that's it, is it?"

Hitching an elbow onto his shoulder, Charlotte gave him a look. "It is. That not enough?"

After that, the two separated. Finding Clara leaning against the pillar near the TARDIS, Charlotte decided to keep her company instead. "Hi," she greeted her.

"Hey," she said, after which they stood in awkward silence. "So, you had a sister?"

"Huh?" She asked, forgetting how she knew. "Oh, she was my little sister, Gina," Charlotte told her, hardly even becoming saddened by their distance anymore.

Clara nods. "Ah, from your old universe. You don't exactly look alike."

"Well... when we were found by the Boltons, they just assumed we were 'cause we had the same last name written on our arms." She paused. "Why am I telling you this?"

"People say I just have one of those faces."

Humming, Charlotte looked back at the TARDIS, seeing Palmer resting a hand on the door. To her, it seemed insane how drastically different it was thinking of her family from the first day she was here and now. In the beginning, all she wanted to do was sob out the loss, but now it felt like a sweet memory she could move forward on.

The Doctor approaches the area with Hila and Emma next to him. At first, Emma and Hila hug each other but then the Doctor turns it into a group hug with the three of them. Clara pushed off the column she has been leaning against. Intruding the group, she pulled the Doctor away as they began to speak with each other.

And she did keep him away until he heard Emma say, "We can't have. You haven't been born yet."

The Doctor moves out of Clara's grip and, along with Charlotte, moves to stand with the two. "No, you can't have met," he agreed with them, "but she can be your great-great- great-great-great-granddaughter." He said with a smile just as Palmer joined our group. "Yours too, of course. But you'd guessed that already, hadn't you?" By the way Emma looked to Hila, flabbergasted they can tell she hadn't. "Oh... apparently not."

"The paradoxes..." Palmer began.

Charlotte finished his sentence, "Resolve. All by themselves."

"She's right," the Doctor replied. "That's why the psychic link was so powerful- blood calling to blood. Out of time. Not everything ends, eh?" He then walked through the group, patting Palmer on the arm as he made his way to the TARDIS, Charlotte stayed behind with Emma and Hila as they looked back and forth to each other. "Not love. Not always."

Palmer follows behind him asking him a question silently, to which the Doctor looked back to Emma- who consequently leaves to stand beside Palmer. Looking over to Hila, Charlotte asked her, "So what do you think you'll do now?"

She shrugs. "I'm not sure, can't make much money being a time traveler anymore."

"If I were you I'd try and stay out of the spotlight."

"That's what I was thinking," she responded, looking over to her ancestors as they held hands. Then, behind them, just as he was about to open the TARDIS doors, the Doctor smacked his forehead. Along with Hila and Clara, Charlotte walked up to where he stood.

"I'm so... slow!" He said, turning to face them. "I am slow, I'm notorious for it, right Charlotte?" He asked her, just as she met where he stood. "That's always been my problem, but I get there in the end. Oh, yes."

Walking up to him, Clara looks up at the Doctor oddly. "Doctor?"

"How do sharks make babies?" He immediately asked her.

"Carefully?"

He shook his head to her, disappointed. "No, no, no- happily!"

"Sharks don't actually smile," She looked up to him, as confused as the rest. "They're just... Well, they've got lots and lots of teeth- they're quite eaty."

The Doctor snapped his fingers. "Exactly! But birds do it, bees do it- Even educated fleas do it." The Doctor pulled Charlotte with him, rushing past Clara (who follows behind) to show the lonely creature. "Every lonely monster needs a companion," he said as they continued running.

He stops running at a spot that they can see into a top floor window. The pathway they stood on was just as overgrown as the brick wall covered with vines that reached the said third-story window- which, from where Charlotte stood can see the silhouette of another one of the same creatures.

Clara stood on her other side, looking up to the window surprised. "There's two of them?!"

"It's the oldest story in the universe," the Doctor began, "This one, or any other. Boy and girl fall in love, get separated by events- war, politics, accidents in time. She's thrown out of the HEX." Charlotte barely paid any amount of attention as he put an arm around her shoulders.

"Or he's thrown into it. Since then they've been yearning for each other across time and space- across dimensions- this isn't a ghost story, it's a... love story!" Charlotte noticed how he looked down at her, taking a second to remove his arm. "Sorry," He apologized, then running back to the others.

Charlotte didn't take it into account at all, running back to the group with Clara, in time to see the Doctor say to Emma, "So... tiny favor to ask..."

So, the Doctor returned to the pocket universe to bring the creature's love home to his universe and Clara and Charlotte once again shrieked as they were being thrown around like rag dolls in the TARDIS the second time that day.

_Next up: The Unquiet Dead (Another Ghost Story)_

A/N: idk if all of ya'll knew this all used to be in first pov and since december i've been switching the pov n editing these chapters (it was harder than it sounds lol). anyhow, this chapter was the last one i finished before beginning the editing process and the next one will mark the first time i've _actually _rewritten a full episode w/o a 'guide' since rise of the cybermen (i had so much wrong in that ep i totally scrapped it).

any who, i'm just really happy i decided to change the pov and proud i went through with it. cheers.

also do ya'll think I'm writing too much per chapter?


	18. another ghost story

_When Charlotte woke up on her bed, she knew something was off. _Instinctively, she looked to her watch to find the time, but once again (as she had all these weeks) found it bare, as it was burnt to dust from the x-tonic sunlight. She sighs and looks around. Despite the familiarity of her TARDIS bedroom, with everything just how she left it went she fell asleep, there was something in the back of her head telling her there was in fact something wrong.

Sitting up from her bed, she noticed where she placed her cane was barren of anything. While Charlotte was quite disappointed in that, her leg has been healing rapidly lately and yesterday she could walk perfectly fine without it. Unfortunately, there's still a limp but it has yet to exclude her from any adventure.

Her hair too has been making a comeback. With the help of the 2050s gel, her head of hair went just below her shoulders when she quit putting the stuff in it and wisps of eyebrows appeared. Due to being afraid of putting the stuff on her eyelids, even when it's stated on the bottle it was safe, the eyelashes have been coming back slowly but surely.

Changing out of her pajamas, she decided to put on a pair of jeans and a grey sweater and finally left her room.

The lights in the halls emitted an orange color, causing her to stiffen. The last time Charlotte was with the Tenth Doctor, he mentioned changing the lighting to a yellow tint soon after regenerating ("-Too much orange..." he said. "Wanted to have a little change, if regenerating wasn't enough.") It was more likely than not, that today will be the first time she meets the Ninth Doctor... which she was rather nervous for.

He didn't have much in common with his Tenth or Eleventh regenerations and she hardly got to meet the Twelfth with him being stuck in the TARDIS for most of her time there. He hasn't even known her for as long they have, what if he doesn't even like her? She shook her head, even if he did it'd obviously disappear somehow.

Charlotte exhaled loudly and began her trip in finding the console room. However, after a few seconds, the TARDIS began to move and shake. Holding onto the railing that runs throughout the hall, she continued to move down. With the sharp turns and mayhem of the moving TARDIS, she did have much more struggle.

Hearing voices from the next room, she looked through the doorway to see Rose Tyler and the Ninth Doctor at the console- trying to control on their own as the constant beeps of an alarm come from the ceiling. Panting exhaustedly at the doorway, Charlotte just watched for a moment.

The Ninth Doctor, who has his back facing her, tells Rose, "Hold that one down!" He nods to a lever.

"I'm _holding _this one down!" She shouts back, motioning to her lever she held down, but Charlotte could only see a part of her face from where she stood.

He responded with, "Well, hold them _both _down!"

For only a split second, the TARDIS was completely steady. Seeing this as her moment, Charlotte bolted to the console, holding down the exact lever he was pointing to. Looking to the Doctor, however, she saw no signs of recognition on his face when he looked at her.

"Who are you?" He questioned her. "How did you get in here?"

Before she could answer, the TARDIS takes a sharp turn. "I'm Charlotte!" She exclaimed, but he still looked at her suspiciously. "Charlotte Bolton?"

Rose, still holding a switch down, yells back to the Doctor, "Can we figure this out when we land?!"

The Doctor doesn't disagree, focusing on steering the TARDIS. "1860 sound good?"

"What happened in 1860?" She asks.

He shrugged. "I don't know- Hold on, here we go!" The TARDIS moves faster through the time vortex. Just a minute later, they all fell to the ground as the TARDIS stops, finally materializing in 1860 with no warning with steam coming out of the console.

Along with the Doctor and Rose, Charlotte stood up from the ground. He immediately turned to her, his eyes staring into her's coldly. "You can't be Charlotte," he said as if he was convinced she wasn't.

"Are you joking?" She replied with a nervous laugh. "'Cause I think I know my own name! Ha, ha. Gotcha." But the Doctor still stared at her with his eyebrows pushed together, as if he was calculating her.

He retorts back with, "And how am I supposed to know that?"

Charlotte was oblivious on how to answer. The only things she could say, at least in front of Rose, was common knowledge. Thankfully, Rose piped up as she looked to the Doctor. "Doctor? Remember what she told us to remember earlier?" He nods and she continued, "What if this Charlotte says what she said…"

Charlotte interrupted, "How would I know? I haven't been there yet!"

"You'll have to remember it then," the Doctor answered.

She made an 'O' shape with her mouth. Thinking hard, Charlotte knew she'd have to pick something memorable, something she won't forget- especially in the far future, when she'll look far different, apparently. Charlotte thought back to the first day she was here and remembered what the Doctor told her at Donna's reception.

"0-2-0-4," she finally said, but they stood still. "Yeah, 0-2-0-4."

The two look back to each other than back to her. "I don't get it, how can you-" the Doctor stops, remembering one passing comment Charlotte made earlier. "Oh."

Charlotte doesn't even think about that moment, not seeing as anything worthy of note. "So, where are we?" She asked, despite knowing very well where they were. "What day is it?"

He moves to the scanner, looking at it he says, "Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860," then added with extra excitement, "I did it! The TARDIS didn't break at all."

"That's so weird... it's Christmas," responded Rose.

The Doctor gestures to the door. "All yours."

She looked back to the doors. "But, it's like..." Rose said, looking back to him. "Think about it, though. Christmas. 1860. Happens once. Just once, and it's gone. It's finished, it'll never happen again. Except for you- the both of you," She corrected herself, quickly looking back to Charlotte before studying the Doctor. "You can go back and see days that are dead and gone and a hundred thousand sunsets ago... no wonder you never stay still."

"Not a bad life," said the Doctor.

She smiled. "Better with three," she responded. For a few moments, they grinned to each other- Charlotte smiled too, but it felt as if she was the third wheel. Rose dashes to the door, standing in front of it she shouts back to them, "Come on then!"

He looks over to her. "Oi, where do you think you're going?"

"1860!" She answered, easily.

He looked to Rose as if she was out of her mind. "Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, the both of you!" He motioned to Charlotte in second thought. Rose looks down at her clothes, getting what he meant. Charlotte, however, even with the TV show, was still confused... she went to 1860 France in a wedding dress and didn't remember starting any 'riots.'

Rose came back over as the Doctor points to the entrance Charlotte just came from. "There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, it's the fifth door on your left." He looked back at Rose and Charlotte. "Hurry up!"

Rushing behind Rose, Charlotte speed-walked in the direction of the wardrobe. In her time, she has only gone there for a few things, as most of the time she could get by with the clothes in her own wardrobe. However, she doubted there would be a period-appropriate dress crammed into those drawers.

In the TARDIS wardrobe, she and Rose separated in their own searches for an outfit. Brushing her hands down the racks of clothes, Charlotte quickly found the small section specific for the late 1860s women's fashion. Rose stood there too, looking at a black off-the-shoulder dress.

"I like that, that'd look great on you," Charlotte tells her, trying to get on her good side after their questionable meeting.

"Yeah, guess I'll try it on." And when she went to get changed, Charlotte continued looking- eventually deciding on tucking a white, high-neck buttoned-up blouse into a black skirt. Knowing about the cold weather, she threw on a black shawl over her shoulders.

And seeing Rose still putting the finishing touches on her outfit, Charlotte left the wardrobe first and went back to the console room. Once she re-entered it, she saw the Doctor doing repair work underneath the console. Standing behind him, Charlotte watched what he was doing as she stood behind him (still unnoticed).

"What're you doing?"

"Just some repairs." The Doctor turns to face her. "You look… nice."

"I'll take it as a compliment," She responded as he returned to his repairs, buzzing the sonic below the console.

Not long later, Rose rejoined them- wearing the black dress Charlotte recommended and matching shawl. The Doctor looked away from his work and up to her in surprise. "Blimey!"

"Don't laugh!" Rose orders him with a smile.

"You look beautiful!" The Doctor looked away awkwardly and paused. "... Considering."

"Considering what?"

"Absolutely nothing," interrupted Charlotte, giving a sharp look to the Doctor. "'Cause you look amazing."

The Doctor tilted his head. "I was going to say considering because you're human." At that, Charlotte sighed.

Smiling, Rose was awfully amused. "I think that's a compliment." She noticed how the Doctor still wore the same outfit as before, while the two were dressed appropriately. "Aren't you going to change?"

Standing up from underneath the console, he motioned to the dark jumper placed underneath it. "I've changed my jumper! Come on!"

"You, stay there!" Rose playfully commanded him. "You've done this before. This is mine!" She hurries over to the TARDIS doorway, opening it up she was met with the snowy, 19th-century streets. Looking down at the ground, Rose hesitated to set her foot into the untouched snow. She lifts it out of the snow and looked at her footprint, cautiously she stepped out altogether with Charlotte and the Doctor following behind.

"Ready for this?" The Doctor asked Rose, offering his arm to her- which she took with a smile. "Here we go. History!"

And just like that, with Charlotte following alongside the two, and the three began their trek on the snowy streets. As they looked around the Cardiff Square in amazement, the Doctor wore his typical grin. Gazing around the town, Charlotte watched as carol singers sang merrily further away, horses clopped down the brick street as they pulled carriages, and people going about their everyday lives all around them… unknowing of the time travelers walking amongst them.

Charlotte doesn't think she'll ever get over the odd, yet sensational feeling.

When a fleet of horses pulls a carriage past them, they wait for it to pass. When it did soon after, Charlotte and Rose followed the Doctor when he rushed over to a newsboy. Buying a copy of the day's newspaper, they continued walking down as the Doctor unfolded it.

Seeing the date, he looked over to them. "I got the flight a bit wrong."

"I don't care."

"It's not 1860, it's 1869."

Charlotte beamed. "Even better!"

"It's Cardiff."

As the two continued walking down the pavement, Rose stopped in her tracks. "Right…" she said before moving to catch up. They carried on walking undisturbed until, and as they grew closer to a theatre, shrieks of terror were heard from across the street.

The Doctor turns ecstatic, throwing the newspaper over his shoulder. "That's more like it!" He says, then running in the direction of the theatre as people began running out. Pushing against the current of strangers screaming as they ran out, they finally entered and Charlotte quickly noticed blue gas flying around in the air- scaring the living daylights out of the guests.

"Fantastic!" The Doctor exclaims at the sight, watching as the blue gas swooped down from the ceiling and seemingly starting from a pale, older woman. This woman stood in the middle of a row quietly and unafraid of what was happening with her head raised to the ceiling emotionlessly. The lady in question collapses to the ground once all the gas left her body.

Seeing this, the Doctor rushed to the stage, where angrily stood a middle-aged man whose long, brunette goatee was beginning to grey. "Ah. The wag reveals himself, does he? I trust you're satisfied, sir!"

Charlotte, looking over to the old woman, spots Sneed and Gwyneth approaching her. "Oi! We-" she looked over to where Rose previously stood, only to see no one. Looking around, she spots the blonde standing beside the Doctor. Huffing, she shouted out her name and Rose turns her head over. "I got it!" She shouted, chasing after Sneed and Gwyneth.

"Be careful!" Responded Rose.

Charlotte pushed upstream of the strangers running out of the theatre to keep up with Gwyneth and Sneed as they haul the old lady to their carriage. As she stepped onto the sidewalk, she saw them both finish sliding the body into the back of their hearse and immediately rushed over.

"What do you think you're doing?" She asked Gwyneth, who stood alone at the end of the hearse.

Gwyneth, trying to hide the dead body from Charlotte, pushed herself in between her and the open door. "Oh, it's such a tragedy, miss. Don't worry yourself, me and the master will deal with it." When Charlotte tilted her head to get a look, Gwyneth moved in the same direction. "The fact is, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary."

"She's dead," Charlotte pushed, wanting to get it out of her.

Gwyneth over-exaggeratedly shook her head. "No, miss, brain fever."

Frustrated, Charlotte pushes past Gwyneth to see the woman. Looking down, she easily recognized her as dead. Turning her head back to Gwyneth, she didn't even get a word out when a hand clamps a tissue over her mouth and nose. Struggling, her muffled screams were heard by no one as Sneed easily held her back, only for her to go silent and go limp after a few seconds.

"What did you do that for?" Gwyneth asked him, looking down at the unconscious woman. While they didn't start on the right page, she knew the brunette meant well.

"She's seen too much," Sneed whispered-yelled at his servant. "Get her in the hearse!" Obeying her master's command, she grabbed the unknown woman's ankles as Sneed aided her in lifting Charlotte up and setting her inside the hearse.

Not long later, Gwyneth carefully shuffled in backward into the Chapel of Rest- the room where Sneed and Company laid the dead in their coffins. Holding onto the ankles of the still unconscious Charlotte, Sneed held her beneath her arms.

"The poor girl's still alive, sir! What're we going to do with her?" Gwyneth questioned him as they laid her on a table set in the middle of the room, and was between two open coffins.

"I don't know!" exclaimed Sneed, looking over at his servant exasperatedly. "I didn't plan any of this, did I. Isn't my fault the dead won't stay dead."

"Then whose fault is it, sir?" Gwyneth follows after her master as he began to leave the room. "Why is this happening to us?" She leaves the room behind him, closing and locking the door. Unbeknownst to either of them, a gaslight in the room flickers ever so slightly.

"I did the Bishop a favor, once," Mr. Sneed tells Gwyneth as they walk through the hallway on the ground floor of the Sneed and Company building. "Made his nephew look like a cherub. Even though he'd been a fortnight in the weir." He stops walking in front of her. "Perhaps he'll do us an exorcism on the cheap." Both of their thoughts came to a halt when a loud knock was heard at their front door.

Sneed, paranoid the people at the door saw what he did, looked over to Gwyneth seriously. "Say I'm not in. Tell them we're closed. Just… just get rid of them." He then ran back down the hall to hide as Gwyneth approached the door.

* * *

Waking up in the Chapel of Rest, Charlotte rubbed her head as she sat upon the table. As she does so, gas from the lamps filled up the body of a young man that rested in the coffin beside her. Then, all of a sudden, he sits up with his skin so pale it looked blue. Charlotte turns her head and spotted the late Mr. Redpath staring straight at her with his cold, dead eyes.

* * *

Downstairs, Gwyneth answered the door after a series of loud knocks. Opening it up, an angry Charles Dickens stood before her with another man in a leather jacket and a blonde girl standing behind him. "I'm sorry, sir, we're closed," Gwyneth told him, keeping a hand at the door.

"Nonsense!" declared Charles, not believing her. "Since when did an undertaker take office hours? The dead don't die on schedule. I demand to see your master."

"He's not in, sir," Gwyneth gave a weak smile and attempted to close the door, but Dickens kept a strong arm on it and forced it to stay open.

"Don't lie to me, child!"

The servant looked at Charles taken aback before regaining her composure. "I'm awfully sorry, Mr. Dickens, but the master's indisposed."

Behind Charles, the Doctor looks at a lamp hung inside of the building as it flared up on its own. "Having trouble with your gas?" He asked her.

Dickens looked to it too, his head tilting as he became confused. "What the Shakespeare is going on?"

* * *

Charlotte jumps off the table, watching carefully as the young man who had the gas go into him groans in a zombie-like manner. She backs up towards the door, keeping an eye on him as he left the casket- stalking towards her slowly with his steps unsteady.

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God," she repeated under her breath. Frantically, she attempted to open the door but found it locked.

* * *

Pushing past Gwyneth, the Doctor forced his way into the Sneed and Company hallway. With Rose following him, he presses his ear on the wall beneath the flickering gaslight.

"You're not allowed inside, sir, miss!" But her complaints were not followed by them leaving.

"What is it?" Rose asked him urgently, as something did not feel right to her.

"There's something in the walls."

* * *

As the late Redpath continues to slowly walk towards her, Charlotte, with her back to the door, could only watch as the old lady from the theatre sat up straight in her own coffin- the same dead look on her face as the man.

* * *

The Doctor, with his ear still to the wall, looked up to them. "The gas pipes. Something's living inside the gas."

* * *

Charlotte grew desperate as the man ambled towards her. Quickly, she took a vase from a small table and chucked it at his torso- shattering on him. Despite her attempt, he stood strong and could easily continue moving slowly towards her.

"Help!" She shouted, running out of ideas. "Help me! Anyone... please!" Charlotte pounds against the door. She turns around, watching as the elderly lady stands out of her casket and begins to move towards her with the late Redpath.

Charlotte scrambled to open a drawer, seeing nothing in it, she found the drawer wasn't attached to the table and took it out from it. Chucking it at the dead man, it bounced dumbly off of him and fell to the ground. Seeing no other option, Charlotte turned back to the door, hammering on to it as she shouts, "Somebody, let me out! Let me out!"

Then, when a cold hand was placed over her mouth to muffle her shouts, she was pulled away from the door. However, only a second later, the door was kicked in by the Doctor. Seeing her struggling against the dead man's grip, he rushed to her aid. "I think this is my dance," he says as he released her from their grip and pulled her to stand beside him by the doorway.

Charles Dickens joined them. Standing in the doorway beside Rose, he looks at the dead astound. "It's a prank. It must be," he figures. "We're under some mesmeric influence."

"No, we're not. The dead are walking," the Doctor tells him, he looked over to the panting Charlotte. "Hi."

"Hi!" She looked over to Charles, then back to the Doctor. "Got a friend?"

"Charles Dickens," replied the Doctor.

Charlotte's grin widened- he wasn't her favorite author, she was more of a Jane Austen person, but he was brilliant in his own right. "Oh, good."

The Doctor looked to the corpses, which stand eerily facing them. "My name's the Doctor. Who are you then?" He demands them. "What do you want?"

Redpath begins speaking along with the raspy voices coming from seemingly nowhere. "We're failing," they said together. "Open the rift, we're dying. Trapped in this form, cannot sustain, help us." Both the late Redpath and the elderly woman lift their heads to the ceiling, and with a cry, the blue gas leaves the bodies through their mouth and returns to the lamps. Once all has left them, the bodies fell to the floor.

* * *

Downstairs, in the Sneed Parlour, Gwyneth carefully pours their guests' hot tea into small, floral teacups in front of Charles and Rose. Meanwhile, a fuming Charlotte paced in front of Mr. Sneed as he sat in his comfy chair.

"You drug me, you kidnap me…" Charlotte points an accusing finger at him. "And then let your hands wander, you disgusting old man!" Standing beside the fireplace, the Doctor snickers under his breath.

"I won't be spoke to like this!"

"Well too bad!" scoffed Charlotte as the man in the chair shook his head. "You put me in that room! You ran off and locked the door! _You_ left me to die! So, hurry up now, talk!" Gwyneth set Sneed's tea on the side table.

"It's not my fault, it's this house!" Sneed looks around to see their intrigued looks. "It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much of a bother until a few months back. And then the stiffs…" He looked over to Dickens to see his minor offense of the word and corrected himself, "... the, er, dear departed started getting restless."

Dickens set his cup of tea on the table and shook his head. "Tommyrot."

"You witnessed it!" Sneed exclaimed, bending forward his seat. "Can't keep the beggars out, sir! They walk. And it's the queerest thing that they hang onto the scraps…"

Gwyneth approached the Doctor with his cup of tea, setting it on the fireplace mantle. "Two sugars, sir, just how you like it." As she retreated back to the kitchen, the Doctor watched her with his eyes narrowed- never did he tell her how he liked his tea, so how could she know?

In his seat, Mr. Sneed continues on, "... One old fella who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service! Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir! Just as she planned."

Charles stands up from his seat. "Morbid fancy."

"Oh, Charles, you were there," responded the Doctor.

"I saw nothing but an _illusion_."

"If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up," the Doctor retorts back at Charles, who looked to be stunned by what he said. The Doctor looks back to Sneed. "What about the gas?"

Mr. Sneed turns his head. "That's new, sir, never seen anything like that."

"Means it's getting stronger," the Doctor realized, "the rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through."

With her eyebrows pushed together, Rose looked over at him, confused about what he meant. "What's the rift?" She asked.

"A weak point in time and space," describes the Doctor. "The connection between this point and another."

Her arms crossed, Charlotte glanced over at Rose. "It's also what caused ghost stories if I'm right," she added and then looked over to the Doctor for clarification. "I am right, right?"

"Right," he answered.

"That's how I got the house so cheap…" Mr. Sneed realizes, just as Charles left the room unnoticed by any.

Sneed carries on, "Stories going back centuries. Echoes in the dark. Queer songs in the air and this feeling like a… shadow. Passing over your soul." By now, everyone was captivated by what he had to say... not one looking away. "Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine." The Doctor laughs quietly to himself at Sneed's comment.

* * *

Walking into the kitchen area, Charlotte and Rose noticed Gwyneth lighting another gaslight. She blows out her match and turns over to the two as they stand at the sink. "Please, miss! You shouldn't be helping!" Gwyneth insists. "It's not right."

"Don't be daft. Sneed works you to death." Rose handed her the cloth to dry her hands. "How much do you get paid?"

"Eight pound a year, miss."

Charlotte blinks- finding it strange how little someone was paid. "Eight?"

"I know." Gwyneth laughs lightly. "I would've been happy with six."

Rose looked over at Gwyneth as she returned to the chores, thrown for a moment. "So, did you go to school or what?"

With her eyebrows raised, Charlotte eyed Rose. "You can't just ask that!" She whisper-yells to her.

"It's quite alright, miss," Gwyneth assured her. "Of course I went. What do you think I am? An urchin? I went every Sunday. Nice and proper."

"What, once a week?"

Gwyneth shook her head with a smile. "We did sums and everything." Her smile drops as she turns serious. "To be honest, I hated every second."

"Me too," agreed Rose.

"I didn't either," Charlotte commented with a laugh, much to Rose's surprise. "Math was the worst. I'm rubbish at it."

Gwyneth leaned in as if what she was about to say was scandalous. "Don't tell anyone, but one week, I didn't go and ran on the heath all on my own!" She laughs.

"I did plenty of that. I used to go down to the shops with my mate Shareen. And we used to go look at boys!"

Right away, Gwyneth quit laughing as her eyes grew. "Well, I don't know much about that, miss." She returned to washing up.

"Come on, times haven't changed that much! I bet both of you've done the same."

Charlotte shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I have been in a _few _relationships in the day…"

"I don't think I should say, miss."

"Gwyneth! You can tell me!" Rose tells her, but she still has her back turned. "Bet you've got your eye on someone."

Gwyneth looks back to them timidly. "I suppose. There is this one lad…" She looked at the thrilled Rose as she began glowing at the thought of him. "The butcher's boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him!"

"Oh, I like a nice smile," agreed Rose. "Good smile, nice bum." Rose glanced over at Charlotte, seeing her red with second-hand embarrassment. "Oh, don't act like there's nothing you like!"

Charlotte looks around sheepishly. "All of my exes did have a nice head of hair."

"Oh, I like that, good head of hair."

Gwyneth looks to the two, astounded. "Well, I have never heard the like!" All three of them laughed together.

"Ask him out!" Urged Rose. "Give him a cup of tea or something, that's a start."

"I swear, it's the strangest thing, miss. You've got all the clothes and the breeding but you talk like some sort of wild thing!"

Rose shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe I am. Maybe that's a good thing. You need a bit more in your life than Mr. Sneed."

"Ah, now that's not fair." Gwyneth tilted her head. "He's not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to me to take me in. Because I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was twelve."

"I'm sorry," Charlotte said to her.

"Thank you, miss," replied Gwyneth with a smile. "But I'll be with them again, one day. Sitting with them in paradise. I should be so blessed. They're waiting for me." She looks up, thinking about seeing them again, then she looks back at Charlotte and Rose. "Maybe your parents are up there waiting for you too, miss. And your father, too."

Charlotte hums in response before scrutinizing her. "How do you know about them?" She asked her while knowing the answer, she also knew she shouldn't speed up the process any.

Gwyneth's eyes widened as she turned back to washing the dishes. "I don't know," she answers, "must've been the Doctor."

"No, he hardly even looks at me." Charlotte shook her head. "I doubt I've talked about my parents."

Rose looks at Gwyneth baffled. "My father died years back."

"You've been thinking about him lately, more than ever," Gwyneth replied, looking back to her.

"I s'pose so... how do you know all this?"

Gwyneth chuckles under her breath. "Mr. Sneed says I think too much. I'm all alone down here." She looked around the kitchen and her eyes landed back on Rose. "I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you miss."

They laughed again and Rose answered, "No, no servants where I'm from."

"And you've come such a long way."

Her eyebrows furrowing, Rose looked at Gwyneth. "What makes you think so?"

The woman in question steps forward, her eyes staring head on to Rose. "You're from London. I've seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about. Half naked, for shame. And the noise… the metal boxes racing past… and the birds in the sky… they're metal as well." Charlotte watched intently as Gwyneth continued, "Metal birds with people in them. People flying. And you, you've flown so far, further than anyone! The things you've seen… the darkness… the big bad wolf…" Panting, she staggers back, pushing her back against the shelves. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, miss!"

"S'alright…" Rose tells her, utterly confused about what just happened.

"I can't help it, ever since I was a little girl. My mum said I had the sight. She told me to hide it!"

"But it's getting stronger," a voice interrupted in the doorway. Looking over, they spot the Doctor standing in the doorframe, watching. "More powerful, is that right?"

Taken aback, Gwyneth took a second to answer. "All the time, sir. Every night. Voices in my head."

"You grew up on top of the rift. You're part of it. You're the key."

"I've tried to make sense of it, sir." She dabs her forward with the cloth, still shaken with what happened with Rose. "Consulted with spiritualists, table wrappers, all sorts."

"Well, that should help. You can show us what to do."

"What- What to do where, sir?"

"We're going to have a seance," the Doctor answered with a wide grin.

_Next up: Unquiet Dead Part Two (Another Ghost Story)_


	19. another ghost story II

**_The Sneed parlor was dimly lit as everyone sat around a round table. _**Sitting in between Dickens and Gwyneth, Charlotte looked over to the woman on her left as she began speaking. "This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists," Gwyneth tells them. "Down in Mid Town. Come. We must all join hands."

With a shake of his head, Charles stood up from his spot. "I can't take part in this," he said.

"Humbug?" replied the Doctor, "Come on, open mind."

"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I try to un-mask. Seances? Nothing but tambourines and a squeezebox concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing."

"Now, don't antagonize her." The Doctor grins, looking over at Rose. "I love a happy medium."

As Charlotte rolled her eyes, Rose shook her head with a smile. "I can't believe you just said that."

"Come on, we might need you," the Doctor tells Charles. Begrudgingly, he sits back down and takes hold of Charlotte and Rose's outstretched hands. "Good man. Now, Gwyneth. Reach out."

Gwyneth takes in a deep breath before beginning. "Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits? Come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden." Gwyneth raises her head to the ceiling as quiet, murmuring voices filled the room.

"Can you hear that?" Asked Rose in a whisper.

"Nothing can happen," Charles denied again. "This is sheer folly."

"Look at her." Rose nods her head over at Gwyneth, who still looks up to the ceiling.

"I see them. I feel them!" The blue, gaseous beings began to fill the room, but their mumblings were still unclear.

"What're they saying?" Rose questioned.

"They can't get through the rift." The Doctor looks back at Gwyneth. "Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now look deep. Allow them through."

"I can't!"

Charlotte looks away from the gas and looked straight at her. "Yes, you can. We have faith in you, Gwyneth. Just make the link."

Closing her eyes, Gwyneth continues to look up as she tried to create the link. Then, she lowered her head and opened up her eyes. "Yes." Suddenly, three blue figures made of the gas appear behind her; the Gelth. In shock, Charles' mouth was agape.

"Great God!" Exclaimed Sneed. "Spirits from the other side."

"The other side of the universe," the Doctor added.

The Gelth, with Gwyneth, began speaking in childlike voices, _"Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time, help us."_

"What do you want us to do?"

_"The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge."_

The Doctor looked up to them, continuing to question further, "What for?"

_"We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction."_

"Why?" The Doctor asked them. "What happened?"

_"Once we had a physical form like you. But then the war."_

Intrigued, Charles looks up to the Gelth. "War? What war?"

_"The Time War." _Both Charlotte and Rose glanced at the Doctor, who looked back at them with outwardly no reaction.

_"The whole universe convulsed," _the Gelth continued. _"The Time War raged invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state."_

"So that's why you need the corpses," the Doctor realized.

_"We want to stand tall. To feel the sunlight. To live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste, give them to us!"_

Rose's eyebrows furrowed together, "But we can't."

The Doctor looked over to her. "Why not?"

"It's not… I mean, it's not…"

"Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives," the Doctor tells her. Looking away from the Gelth and to them, Charlotte saw an unhappy Rose giving him no arguments.

_"Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth!" _Quickly, the Gelth return to the lamps and disappear, leaving Gwyneth to collapse forward onto the table from holding the connection up so long.

"Gwyneth!" Charlotte gasped, standing up from her spot, she held the woman up- easily seeing she fell unconscious.

"Is she alright?" Rose worried, moving to stand close behind her.

Charlotte nodded her head, thankful for her concern. "She'll be fine, just help me get her to the couch." Rose then aided her in helping Gwyneth up and to the couch.

Charles, meanwhile, was still awestruck at what happened in front of him. "All true… it's all true…" he said to himself, while the Doctor remains as silent as a doorknob.

* * *

Sitting down beside the couch, Charlotte watches Gwyneth carefully as Rose patted her forehead with a cloth. Noticing her fidgeting ever so slightly, Charlotte leans in her seat as Gwyneth's eyes open… growing when she realizes she's laying on the parlor's couch.

"It's alright," Rose tells her. "You just sleep."

"But my angels,"- Charlotte quailed at Gwyneth's use of the word- "miss. They came, didn't they? They need me?"

The Doctor, who leaned against the doorframe, watching intently, spoke up, "They do need you, Gwyneth. You're they're only chance of survival."

Charlotte turns to face him angrily. "You need to let her rest a moment. She's _exhausted_." Turning back to Gwyneth, she couldn't see the Doctor sigh exasperatedly. "Here, drink up." Charlotte handed her a glass of water, and Gwyneth took it.

"Well, what did you say, Doctor?" Sneed, sitting down in the room beside the parlor, asked. "Explain it again. What are they?"

"Aliens."

"Like… foreigners, you mean?"

"Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there." He pointed up to the ceiling.

Mr. Sneed tilts his head. "Brecon?" From her spot, Charlotte chuckled.

"Close," the Doctor responds. "They've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes."

Charles sets his drink on the fireplace mantle. "Which is why they need the girl," he discerned.

Rose turns to face them from where she sat beside Gwyneth. "They're not having her!"

"But she can help," said the Doctor. "Living on the rift, she's become part of it, she can open it up, make a bridge and let them through."

Charles begins to pace around in the lounge area. "Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers."

"Good system. It might work."

Rose stood up from her seat and moved in front of the Doctor. "You can't let them run around inside dead people!"

"Why not? It's like recycling."

"Seriously though, you can't!"

"Seriously though, I can!"

Charlotte rolled her eyes at their exchange. In fact, she agreed with both of them to a point. Yes, she wanted to respect the deceased, and having the Gelth possess their bodies felt wrong. Knowing how it'll end, she knew they couldn't. But if there were actually only a few, perhaps she'd agree with the Doctor more so than Rose (no matter how awful it felt).

"It's just… wrong!" Rose tells him. "Those bodies were living people! We should respect them even in death!"

He thought for a second. "Do you carry a donor card?"

"That's different, that's…"

"It's different, yeah. It's a different morality. Get used to it or go home." At that, Rose stood in silent surprise at his harsh words. The Doctor begins speaking gentler, "You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying."

"I don't care, they're not using her."

"Don't I get a say, miss?" They both turn over to where Gwyneth sits up on the couch.

"Look," Rose began, smiling down at her. "You don't understand what's going on."

"You would say that miss. Because that's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid."

Rose immediately shook her head. "That's not fair!"

"It's true, though. Things might be very different where you're from. But here and now, I know my own mind. And the angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?"

Instead of him, Charlotte looked over at Gwyneth, worried for her newfound friend. "You're sure that you want to do this?"

"They've been singing to me since I was a child," said Gwyneth with a bright smile. "Sent by my mum on a holy mission. So tell me."

The Doctor grins down at her. "We need to find the rift," he said, approaching the table Charles and Sneed sat at. "This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mr. Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?"

"That would be…" he thinks for a second. "- the morgue."

Rose, sitting on the couch beside Gwyneth, sighed. "No chance you were gonna say gazebo, was there?"

Charlotte smirks, "Now, where's the fun in that?"

* * *

As they began walking down the hallway to the morgue, where Gwyneth will meet her end, Charlotte stopped her while everyone continued down. "Gwyneth? Could we talk?"

"Yes, miss. Just make it quick."

"I just…" Charlotte sighed. 'I met this other psychic not long ago, and I got a little put off by her… _snooping_. Not her fault, I know, just got a little emotional and said something about "hating psychics." And… I just wanted you to know if anything happens, that after meeting you I, um, realize how wrong I was.'

Gwyneth smiled. "It's quite alright, miss."

"Yeah, yeah. It's just, she tried to help me talk about something that happened and I sort of ran off. But I think now I might be ready to take her advice, and that wouldn't have happened if I didn't- didn't…" Charlotte sniffled slightly as she began to tear up, finally catching hold of the time that's running out. All of a sudden, she caught Gwyneth off guard when she wrapped her in a hug.

"Gwyneth!" They heard the Doctor calling from ahead, where the morgue's door stood intimidatingly. "Charlotte!"

Walking into the bleak, lamp-lit morgue, Charlotte rubbed away the few tears on her cheeks and looked down at the deceased bodies covered with tarps sadly. However, she quickly got disgusted at the sight of seeing one's pale hand hanging off the edge.

Rose turns to the Doctor once taking the room in. "The thing is, Doctor, the Gelth don't succeed. 'Cause I know they don't. I know for a fact there weren't corpses walking around in 1869."

"Time's in flux. It's changing every second. Your cozy little world could be rewritten like that." He snaps his fingers. "Nothing is safe. Remember that. _Nothing_." On his final word, Charlotte felt the hair at the back of her neck stick up as it became cooler.

"Doctor," Charles catches his attention, "I think the room is getting colder."

"Here they come."

From the lamps, the Gelth leader appears before them, floating in the archway. With its childlike voice, it spoke quickly, _"You have come to help! Praise the Doctor! Praise him!"_

"Promise you won't hurt her!" Rose demands the Gelth.

_"Hurry! Please. So little time. Pity the Gelth."_

"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies," the Doctor informs the Gelth. "This isn't a permanent solution, alright?"

Gwyneth looked up to the creature kindly. "My angels. I can help them live."

"Okay, where's the weak point?"

_"Here, beneath the arch."_

Gwyneth, without question, moved beneath the arch and stood in front of the Gelth. From the crowd, Charlotte admired her sadly- she was so ready, without question, to help the Gelth and they'll stab her in the back. Rose rushed forward to Gwyneth, "You don't have to do this."

Gwyneth cups her hands on Rose's cheeks. "My angels." Then, Rose stumbled back as Gwyneth's face grew stony as she became focused.

_"Establish the bridge, reach out of the void, let us through!"_

"Yes. I can see you! I can see you! Come!"

_"Bridgehead establishing."_

"Come! Come to me! Come to this world, poor lost souls!"

_"It is begun!" _The Gelth leader announced. _"The bridge is made!"_

Gwyneth opened up her mouth and the blue, gaseous Gelth began pouring out by the dozen into the room. _"She has given herself to the Gelth!" _The leader exclaimed in pride.

Looking around as they swarmed around the room, Charles says, "There's rather a lot of them, eh?"

_"The bridge is open. We descend." _The Gelth's once kind, blue appearance turns red and produces sharp teeth. It's childlike voice now deepened and become raspier, _"The Gelth will come through in force."_

"You said that you were _few _in number!" Charles reminded, looking at the Gelth leader in shock from its transformation.

_"A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses." _The Gelth roaming around the room began entering the bodies of the dead- one sitting up perfectly straight in bed under a tarp.

"Gwyneth… stop this!" Mr. Sneed stepped forward to order her. "Listen to your master! This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, leave these things alone. I beg of you-"

"Mr. Sneed! Get back!" Warned Rose, but it was too late. A pale, bearded man in a hospital gown grabs the old Sneed from behind and holds him back as another Gelth takes refuge in his body through his mouth. Moving back together the Doctor, Rose, and Charlotte watched in silent fear as Mr. Sneed looked back at them with his dead, white eyes.

"I think it's gone a little bit wrong…" says the Doctor.

Then, Mr. Sneed begins to speak alongside the demonic Gelth leader. "I have joined the legions of the Gelth," he said. "Come. March with us."

As Charles stands away from them, the corpses begin to close in on the three. Charlotte gulps looking towards Mr. Sneed as he marches in front of them.

_"We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead."_

They continued to be pushed towards a dungeon door as the Doctor shouts to Gwyneth, "Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back! Now!"

_"Four more bodies," _the Gelth leader counted. _"Make them vessels for the Gelth."_

Charles looks around the room in a great panic as corpses begin to near him. "I… I can't! I'm sorry!"

The Doctor pays no attention to Charles as he pushes Rose and Charlotte into the small dungeon in the morgue. Following them, the Doctor closes the gate behind him, locking them inside as the possessed corpses clamber at the bar door to get in.

Charles continued to look around in the morgue, unsure what to do, "It's too much for me! I'm so…" Seeing no other choice, Charles Dickens books it from the room.

_"Give yourself to glory!" _Implored their leader. _"Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth."_

"I trusted you," said the Doctor, looking at them as they stood at their door with their arms outstretched through the door, causing them to resort to pressing their back to the rock. "I _pitied _you!"

_"We don't want your pity! We want this world and all its flesh."_

"Not while I'm alive."

_"Then live no more." _The corpses began rattling at their door, trying to get in.

"But I can't die," Rose said, looking back-and-forth to the both of them. "Tell me I can't! I haven't even been born yet, it's impossible for me to die! Isn't it?!"

The Doctor looks away from the dead and to her. "I'm sorry."

"But it's 1869, how can I die now?"

"Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape," he tells her. "You can be born in the 20th century and die in the 19th and it's all my fault. I brought you two here."

"It's not your fault," Charlotte told him as she stood on the left side of Rose.

"Yeah, it's not your fault," Rose agreed. "I wanted to come."

The Doctor doesn't seem moved as he continues to look at the corpses standing in front of them. "What about me?" He began. "I saw the fall of Troy! World War Five! I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party, now I'm going to die in a dungeon!" His eyes widen, becoming more terrified. "In Cardiff!"

Sighing loudly, Charlotte turned over to him. "This isn't a time to be dramatic, Doctor. I know we aren't going to die."

"If we do die," Rose began with a gulp, "we'll go down fighting, yeah?"

Charlotte violently nodded her head, as she'd expect no other end from either of them. "Of course."

"Together?"

"Yeah!" says the Doctor as Rose links hands with him and takes Charlotte's too.

"I might be scared out of my mind," Charlotte began, looking over at the two. "But I'm so happy I met you."

Rose grinned. "Me too, both of you." She smiled up to the Doctor, who looked down at her.

Right then, Charles came back into the room and frantically moved over to a wall. "Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now fill the room, all of it, now!"

"What're you doing?" The Doctor asks him.

"Turn it all on!" He advises them as he turns the flames off of one gaslight, causing the gas to be released into the air. "Gas the place!"

Finally realizing what Charles was telling them, his face lit up. "Brilliant," the Doctor says. "Gas!"

Rose looks on in confusion. "What, so we choke to death instead?"

"Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous!" Charles puts a handkerchief over his mouth and nose as the gas was released into the air.

Still watching the corpses at the dungeon door, the Doctor nodded. "Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!"

Sensing the gas being released, the group of corpses all turn around to face Charles. His eyes widened as they began to advance on him. "I hope…" He began but lost his train of thought as they got closer to him. "Oh, Lord. I hope that this theory will be validated soon." They began to approach him quicker. Charles gulps. "... If not immediately."

"Plenty more!" Exclaimed the Doctor. Taking a gas canister placed in the cell, he smashes it against the wall. The possessed corpses stopped dead in their tracks, raising their heads to the ceiling the Gelth inside of them was sucked from their bodies with a piercing shriek.

"It's working," Charles gasped, watching them leaving the bodies as he covers his mouth.

Opening up the dungeon door, the Doctor made his way over to Gwyneth with both Charlotte and Rose following close behind him. "Gwyneth! Send them back!" He begs her. "They lied, they're not angels."

Gwyneth's arms drop to her side as she looked back to the Doctor undisturbed. "Liars."

"Look at me," the Doctor said to Gwyneth as he stands in front of her. "If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!"

Even with their hands covering their mouths, both Charlotte and Rose started to struggle breathing with the gas. "Can't breathe," Rose choked out, erupting into a coughing fit as Charlotte too began coughing.

"Charles, get them out," he instructs him, only glimpsing at the two with a flash of concern.

The man tried to pull the women out by the arms, but Rose easily shook his grip loose. "I'm not leaving her!" said Rose. Charlotte, like her, couldn't leave yet, so she pulled herself free of Dickens' grip.

"They're too strong," Gwyneth tells him quietly as Charlotte starts a coughing fit behind him.

"Remember that world you saw? Rose's world?" He questions her, bringing Gwyneth back to the strange London she saw in Rose's head. "All those people, none of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift."

"I can't send them back," Gwyneth responds firmly, her eyes meeting the Doctor's as her face showed she's already reached her decision. "But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out." Her hand slips into her apron pocket, and all watched as she pulls out a box of matches.

Charlotte moved past the Doctor, looking to Gwyneth as silent tears poured down her cheeks. "You sure there's no other way?" She queried her in a whisper.

Ever so slightly Gwyneth nods her head. "This is the only way."

"You can't!" Rose cries, running forward as Charlotte moves back.

"Leave this place!" Gwyneth demands.

The Doctor finally spun to face the pair, holding them by their shoulders he stopped either of them from looking away as he instructed them. "Charlotte, Rose, get out, go now, I won't leave her while she's still in danger, now go!"

Rose turned around to immediately run out alongside Charles. For a moment, Charlotte stayed. Taking one last crestfallen look at Gwyneth, seeing her weakened state in the arch, she gulped. She gives the Doctor one glance, only long enough to see his stern face telling her to go, before hoisting up her dress and chasing after Rose and Dickens.

Sprinting down through the gas-filled home, Charlotte coughed hysterically. Running through the opened front door, she meets Charles and Rose standing apart from place. Leaning on the wall for support, she heaved from the hard run.

Seeing a flash of light and hearing a loud boom, Charlotte turned back to the house to see it up in flames as the Doctor dived out just in time to join the three others out of the fire's way. Brushing off his leather jacket, he looked back at them.

Rose looked up to him with her face desolate. While happy he survived unscathed, she was disappointed with no Gwyneth at his side. He bowed his head down.

"She didn't make it," Rose simply said.

"I'm sorry. She closed the rift." He looked back at the burning house, indicating the cost of her deed clearly.

Dickens too looked at the house. "At such a cost. The poor child."

The Doctor looked back at Rose, who has yet to look away from him. "I did try, Rose," he tells her, "but Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes."

"What do you mean?"

"I think she was dead from the minute she stood in that arch."

Rose furrows her eyebrows, shaking her head as she speaks, "But… she can't have, she spoke to us. She helped us- she saved us. How could she have done that?"

Dickens watched the house burn solemnly beside Rose. "There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." He looks over to the Doctor. "Even for you, Doctor."

"She saved the world." Rose finally gives the house a good look. "A servant girl. No one will ever know."

"But, that's the thing," began Charlotte, wiping the last of her tears off her face. "Sometimes the greatest stories aren't supposed to be shown to many." She turned away from the house and looked back at Rose. "Sometimes, it's good enough to remember." They looked back to the burning house quietly.

* * *

They arrive back at the TARDIS, with Charles still along with them looking at them strangely as they approached the blue box. "Right then, Charlie-boy, I've got to go into my…" pointing at the TARDIS, he tries to think of another word for her, "-shed. Won't be long!" He takes out a ring of keys from his jacket and quickly fits the right one into the lock.

Charlotte turned to Charles with a grin. "And what will you do now, Charles Dickens?"

"Please, it's Charles," he told her.

Charlotte turned to Rose with a giddy smile. "I'm on a first-name basis with Charles Dickens!"

Charles then answered her question, "I shall take the mail coach back to London. Quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them." Listening to him, the three looked down at him all proud of how much he's changed in a few hours. "After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital."

"You've cheered up!" The Doctor grinned joyfully.

He turns lively as he looks back on what he's learned. "Exceedingly!" Exclaims Charles. "This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world and now I know I've just started! All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor! I'm inspired. I _must _write about them!"

"Do you think that's wise?" Rose questioned him with an amused smile.

"I shall be subtle at first," he tells them. "The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending." He leaned in, darkening his tone as he continued, "Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle? Perhaps he was not of this earth? The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word! Tell the truth!"

"Good luck with it," the Doctor tells him with a smile. "Nice to meet you." His grin spread out across his face as they shook hands. "Fantastic." He turns back to the TARDIS doors as Rose begins her goodbye.

"Bye, then. And, thanks." Stepping forward, she gave him a kiss on his cheek and left him flabbergasted. Seeing his expression, Charlotte snickered under her breath.

"Oh, my dear, how modern," he responded. "Thank you, but, I don't understand, in what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?"

"You'll see." The Doctor pointed his head to the TARDIS door for Rose and Charlotte. "In the shed." He opens the door but closes it slightly when Charles goes on.

"Oh, my soul. Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you!" Charles looks up to the Doctor as he turns his focus away from 'the shed' and to him. "But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this: who are you?"

As he paused, thinking of an answer to Charles' question, Rose and Charlotte looked up at him exceptionally. "Just a friend passing through," he answered with a tight smile.

"But you have such knowledge of future times. I- I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you…" Charles gulped, afraid of the worst response from him. "My books. Doctor, do they last?"

The Doctor took his hand off the TARDIS doorway and grinned from ear to ear. "Oh, yes!"

"For how long?"

"Forever!" At his answer, Charles tries to remain modest by holding back his immensely pleased smile.

Charlotte chortled as his suppressed grin and held out her hand for him to shake. "Now, get to London!" She urged him as they shook hands, not wanting any of his Christmas spirit to waste away. "Make those amends!"

"I will, I will. Thank you, Charlotte…" He paused, not ever being told her surname.

"Charlotte Mary Bolton," she clarified with a laugh. At the TARDIS door, the Doctor paused at the part of her name he has yet to be told. Mary. His jolly smile drops from his face as he looks over at her.

"Thank you, Charlotte Bolton," he said to her.

The Doctor shakes his head. "Right. Shed. Come on, Rose… Charlotte." They all turned to the door, ready to step in after the other.

"In, in the box? All of you?" Charles asked as the Doctor stepped inside.

Poking his head outside, he looked over at him. "Down boy. See ya!" He steps fully inside. And, following after Rose, Charlotte paused to send the author one last smile before closing the door behind her. She meets the two as they surround the scanner, which shows Charles standing outside the doors.

"Doesn't that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?" Asked Rose.

"In a week's time it's 1870," he told her, "and that's the year he dies. Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story."

Charlotte hummed, looking at the scanner as Charles confusedly looked at the TARDIS. "He was nice." The Doctor says nothing in response to her.

"That's a shame," mused Rose, as well finding him quite nice.

"But in your time, he was already dead! We've brought him back to life! He's more alive now than he's ever been, old Charlie-boy." He beams down at her, proud of himself. "Let's give him one last surprise." Hitting down a button, the TARDIS engines started up and outside Charles Dickens watched in astonishment as the blue box disappeared before him.

* * *

It was a day later. A day of suspicious looks being sent to Charlotte from the Doctor, and a day of her wanting nothing more than to leave. Ever since the talk with Gwyneth in the hallway, she wanted to speak to someone about Midnight. But it was clear to her she'd have to wait, as not even the Doctor seems to be trusting her these days.

And Rose? She just didn't want to speak to her about something so personal.

Charlotte was reading in the console room, alone with the Doctor as Rose went to take a shower. As he was doing small repairs to the console, she had the last straw when she spotted him glancing at her for the thousandth time. "Stop that," she hissed at him, setting her book to the side.

"Stop what?" He questions, trying to play dumb.

"You know what I'm talking about, don't play dumb!" After a moment of silence, where he gave no hints of understanding her, she sighed loudly. "Quit looking at me like I'm doing something weird!"

"I am not!"

"Yes, you are!"

Seeing he was getting nowhere in convincing her, the Doctor set his tools down and turned over to where she sat facing him on the captain's seat. "Fine. I am."

Charlotte raised her eyebrows for emphasis as she asked him, "Why?"

He breathes in sharply, seeing himself in a hole he couldn't get out of with another lie. "I don't trust you."

Like a fish out of water, her mouth hung open in surprise. "How… how can you not trust me? I know everything that'll happen to you, the TARDIS likes me-" at least she thinks she does- "and I've done nothing wrong!"

"You know so much, yet you don't use it!"

'What do you mean, "I don't use it?"' Charlotte asked him, her eyes narrowing.

The Doctor sighed. "You haven't been using what you know to make a _plan _to save people."

Once again, Charlotte's mouth gaped open and she was speechless. Thinking on it more as he paused, her shoulders slumped when she realized he had more of a point than she believed… She thought about Mr. Sneed's dead look, Gwyneth's pale face, and all the way back to Ricky and the Krafayis. Maybe if she was more clever than they'd still be here… But then Charlotte thought back to the hostess, while the only person yet she's saved, the woman was enough to make her point her head back at the Doctor.

"But I have," she says to him, trying to look at him straight-on but ultimately failed. "I saved someone and almost died doing it. And I have tried-"

"No, no you haven't." He interrupted her, the flurry of emotions that have been built up over the past day finally exploding all at once. "If you tried, less people would be dead. You need to stop _acting _like you've got a leg up on us and actually have a plan!"

She tried to think of something else to say but, as the Doctor turned on his heel to leave the console room, the only words that came out of her mouth were a silent, "I'm sorry." At the beginning of the corridors, he stopped a moment, looking back at her before continuing down.

Charlotte closed her eyes as she moved her head back. To her, she believed wholeheartedly that he had a point- if she'd try harder, she'd actually help. But she also thought about other things… maybe if she went along with Mickey instead of Rose in Pete's World all those weeks ago, she could've saved Ricky? But, then she remembers he was part of the reason Mickey stayed there in the first place and without him there they wouldn't come back in _Doomsday._

And then she thought of how she decided to go with Rose instead of him- was that really the best choice? Charlotte began to feel guilty for it, all the time in her old universe thinking down on the Doctor for looking past him and she did the exact same thing! What worse, she didn't even think about it until weeks later.

She tried to look past that small act, but instead, Charlotte was met with a list of every questionable choice she's made; dating Ian, not studying enough in school, and her impulsiveness getting her into trouble with both the authorities and petty drama. And all of these memories, decisions, and acts led her to one big question:

_How could she ask anyone to trust her when she can't even trust herself in this dangerous universe?_

_Next up: The Rebel Flesh (Anger and Gangers)_

A/N: about to write one of my least favorite episodes woohoo.


	20. anger and gangers

In the TARDIS console room, as loud music played on the speakers, the Eleventh Doctor looked from where the monitor flashed between 'positive' and 'negative' and to where Amy and Rory played darts. Rory stood across the dartboard and carefully aimed the said dart to it before throwing it. Watching it come in just below the wire, the corners of his mouth raised in a small smile.

Amy looked from the dart and back at Rory. "46. Rubbishy, rubbishy, rubbish," she chided, setting down the clipboard of scores.

"Hello, it's a double top," he corrects her, pointing to his dart before moving out of the way as she began her turn.

"Wrong side of the wire, mister," replied Amy as she aimed her dart.

"You're red."

She laughed as she winked to help aim. "No, I'm not. Stop trying to put me off." Just about to let go of the dart, Amy's heart stopped when a puffy-eyed brunette with flushed cheeks appeared in front of her- wearing grey pajama pants and a green shirt. Charlotte's eyes widen, seeing the dart pointed at her nose.

"Charlotte!" Exclaimed Amy, catching the Doctor's attention from the console- where he turns off the music and the pregnancy scan. "I almost killed you!" Amy finally took in her flushed face. "Are you alright?"

"Wha- Oh, um, yeah, yeah. I'm good," Charlotte stammered, rubbing a hand across her face. She feigned a smile and looked between Amy and Rory. "Now, when are we?"

"Question is, when were you?" The Doctor asked, seeing her state.

Charlotte turns over to him, crossing her arms over her chest as her teeth pushed together. With a puff of air and a roll of her eyes, she moved away from the two and walked up to the console, only to purposefully stand on the opposite side of it. Amy and Rory, who were onlooking this interaction, looked over to each other equally confused.

"Charles Dickens?" He guessed, only knowing he was correct when she nodded.

"Alright, what happened?" Amy questioned them, walking up to the console with Rory following. Getting no response, she immediately turned to the Doctor, "What'd you do?"

"He didn't do anything… It's more of my fault, anyway."

The Doctor shook his head at her. "No, no. Nothing was your fault. Nothing. I said what I said, and I regret it."

"You were just saying the truth," replied Charlotte. While she tried to seem okay with what the Doctor said, he noticed her eyes downcast to the console as her right hand fiddled with it uselessly. "I should have more of a plan."

"Okay, okay…" mumbled the Doctor to himself before turning to face Rory and Amy. "How 'bout, while we-" he pointed from himself to Charlotte- "talk, I drop you two off for fish 'n' chips? Take your time. Don't rush."

Rory seemed to peak up at 'fish 'n' chips.' "Could we have some context? I'm really confused on what's wrong."

"I did something."

"That 'something' wasn't your fault, and you couldn't do anything to stop it," the Doctor responded, raising his eyebrows at her for emphasis but her opinion remained unchanged; the Doctor really didn't trust her and all the deaths she's seen here could've had a different outcome if it weren't for her.

"They couldn't be vaguer…" Rory whispered to Amy when he joined them at the console, Amy nodded- neither had seen the two act so indifferent to each other, even Amy found them less friendly than with Vincent van Gogh!

"Yeah, fish 'n' chips is good," Amy tells the Doctor. "But when we get back, you two better be all good."

"Come on, Pond, you know us, always tip-top."

Amy was about to reply, but a loud horn blared before the TARDIS began to fly around wildly on her own. With a shout of surprise, Charlotte held onto the console for dear life while her feet slid down the floor as the TARDIS tilted about.

The Doctor, struggling to hang on just as much as them, tried to stop the TARDIS. "Solar Tsunami!" He shouts over the noise. "Came directly from your sun! A tidal wave of radiation. Big, big, big!" He held down a lever as they continued to be thrown around.

Rory, unlike the three that held onto the console, holds a railing for support, "Oh, Doctor, my tummy's going funny…"

"Hold it in, Rory!" Charlotte shouted back at him as she tightened her grip on the console and pushing her feet to the floor.

"Well, the gyros are dissipated. Target-tracking is out." With much effort, the Doctor pushes down a lever but nothing happens and the TARDIS continues to be pushed through the Solar Tsunami. As they hurtle dangerously close to Earth, the Doctor looked to everyone wide-eyed, "Assume the position!"

As Amy moves to sit down in a chair with hands covering the back of her head, Charlotte follows her example and kneels beneath the console. Seeing Rory looking around in confusion, Charlotte looked up from underneath her hands. "Get down!" She yelled up at him. Rory obliged, kneeling onto the ground covering his head as the TARDIS crash-landed. As the ship settles, Charlotte looks up slowly as she pants from the rough landing.

"Textbook landing," the Doctor, who already stood up facing them, comments.

"For a very, very bad landing," grumbled Charlotte as she stood up from beneath the console.

* * *

Just minutes later, after Amy and Rory grabbed their light-jackets and Charlotte put on a pair of shoes and slid on her green windbreaker, they all left the TARDIS to be met just outside of a medieval monastery that resided on an island. On top of a spire, the monastery's weather vane spun around.

"Behold!" Exclaimed the Doctor as he stepped out of the TARDIS but quickly grew underwhelmed by the sight. "A cockerel. Love a cockerel. And, underneath, a monastery, 13th-century." Charlotte stepped out and looked up at the rusting weather vane as it squeaked from spinning around.

Finally, Amy stepped out and closed the TARDIS door. "Oh, we've gone all medieval."

"I'm not sure about that," says Rory, hearing something in the distance.

"Really? Medieval expert, are you?"

He shook his head. "No, it's just that I can hear Dusty Springfield."

Charlotte, hearing the music too, raised her head trying to find where it was coming from. Finding nothing, she followed the couple as they stopped beside the Doctor as he crouched in front of a hole in the ground that exposed a pipe running through the middle.

"These fissures are new," he tells them. "The Solar Tsunami sent out a huge wave of gamma particles. This was caused by a magnetic quake that occurred just before the wave hit."

"Well, the monastery's standing," said Amy as she looked up at it.

The Doctor takes out a small snow globe from his pocket, shaking it. "Yeah, for now…" he muttered, sliding the snow globe back into his pocket.

Crouching on the other side of the ground's hole, Charlotte spotted words written on the pipe's side. '"DANGER Corrosive,"' she read out loud, pointing to the words.

"Ah, it's a supply pipe." The Doctor took out the sonic screwdriver and did a quick scan of it. He looks at the results. "Ceramic inner lining. Something corrosive. They're pumping something off this island, to the mainland." Sliding the screwdriver back into his pocket, he stands up.

"My mum's a massive fan of Dusty Springfield," Rory adds, still hearing the music playing far away.

"Who isn't?" Said the Doctor as Charlotte stood up beside the hole. "Right, let's go. Satisfy our rabid curiosity." He then rushed up the wooden stairs at the side of the monastery with everyone else following after him.

As they walked through the courtyard, Charlotte heard a bird's chirp echo throughout the area. The music also became louder as they neared the source. "So, where are these Dusty Springfield-loving monks, then?" Amy asked the Doctor while they continued their voyage through the old church.

Taking out the sonic, he began scanning down. "I think we're here. This is it."

"Doctor, what are you talking about?" Rory questioned him. "We've never been here before."

"We came here by accident," Amy added as he began climbing up another, smaller, set of steps.

Finally finished with the long scan with the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor turns over to them. '"Accident?" Yes, I know. Accident.'

"Ah! Ow!" Exclaimed Rory, shaking his hand after touching one of the pipes that ran beside the stairs.

"Acid. They're pumping acid off this island." The Doctor told them as Amy looked at Rory's hand. "That's old stuff. Fresh acid? You wouldn't have a finger."

Charlotte not-so-lightly kicked his foot. "You aren't helping," she tells him.

The Doctor was about to say more, but an alarm caused all of them to look around as an electronic voice alerts on the monastery's intercom, "Intruder alert. Intruder alert."

"There are people coming," warned the Doctor, looking down at the sonic his face screwed up. "Well, almost."

"Almost coming?" Questioned Amy.

"No, almost people." Seeing no one moving, Charlotte waved her hands. "Come on!" At her word, almost all of them followed after her down the monastery's corridor.

Rory instead hesitated to move down the corridor with them, staying at the top of the steps. "I think we should probably go…"

"Come on!" Amy shouted to him as they continued down moving down.

"I'm telling you, when something runs towards you, it's never for a nice reason." Amy runs back over to Rory, pulling him by the arm, she finally drags him with her.

* * *

As the alarm continued to blare, Charlotte led the group into a dim room only lit by window alcoves. However, those windows were blocked by harnesses occupied by people in orange jumpsuits sleeping.

"What are all these harnesses for?" Asked Amy as they rushed in the room.

Rory looked at the harnessed people in confusion. "Uh, the almost people?"

"What are they? Prisoners?" Amy guessed. "Or are they meditating, or what?"

"Well, at the moment, they fall into the 'or what' category," said the Doctor as they regrouped, ready to head down another corridor when the same electronic voice from earlier spoke again.

"Halt and remain calm," it ordered them.

Still all grouped up, the Doctor looked back and forth from the three of them. "Well, we've halted. How are we all doing on the calm front?"

Rolling her eyes, Charlotte mumbled a few incoherent words at him. Then, three people in orange jumpsuits walked into the room- a brunette man, an older-looking guy, and a dark haired woman with bangs. Both of the men held advanced lances in the direction of the group as they approached.

"Don't move!" Jimmy, the older man, orders as he points his lance at them.

"Stay back, Jen," advised Buzzer, the brunette man, as he keeps his eyes pointed at the group. "We don't know who they are."

"So let's ask them." Jennifer, or Jen, said back at him. "Who the hell are you?" 

"Well, I'm the Doctor and this is Charlotte, Amy, and Rory and it's all very nice isn't it?"

Amy, who's been looking from the people in the harness and the people standing in front of them, quickly realized they were completely identical. "Hold up. You're all- what are you all, like, identical twins?"

Before they could answer, another man and woman enter from behind them wearing red acid suits. "This is an Alpha-grade industrial facility," the woman, who seems to be in charge of this crew, caused their heads to turn as she spoke up. "Unless you work for the military or for Morpeth Jetson, you are in big trouble."

"Actually, you're in big trouble," the Doctor corrects her. Moving forward, he pulls out the psychic paper and she takes it in her hand.

Looking from the paper and back up to him, she raised an eyebrow. "Meteorological department, since when?"

"Since you were hit by a solar wave," he replies.

"Which we survived."

"Just, by the look of it. And there's a bigger one on the way."

"Which we'll also survive," she answered easily. Glancing over to the man she entered with, she says, "Dicken, scan for bugs." Charlotte sighed at that. Of all names, she just happened to be in the same episode of a Dicken right after meeting Charles Dickens.

Dicken held up a scanner. "Backs against the wall," he orders. "Now." Following his command, Charlotte held up her hands as the four of them backed up.

"You're not a monastery," the Doctor realized as they backed up to the wall. "You're a factory. 22nd century, army-owned factory."

"You're army?" Amy questions as Dicken prepared the scanner.

Cleaves, the woman in charge, held back an eye roll at the accusation. "No, love, we're contractors and you're trespassers."

Pointing the scanner to the four of them, Dicken began scanning. Just a moment later he lowered it and looked back to her. "It's okay, boss."

"All right, weatherman, your I.D. checks out. If there's another solar storm, what are you going to do about it, hand out sunblock?"

Stepping forward, the Doctor nervously laughed as he took the psychic paper back. Looking over to Amy, she laughed just as cautiously. "I need to see your critical systems," he tells her seriously.

"Which one?"

He kept quiet for a moment as he thought for the right answer to give, "You know which one."

After taking off the acid suit, Cleaves began leading them through the Monastery with Charlotte walking alongside her. Unlocking a metal door she reveals the Flesh Room; a room with an open tank of bubbling liquid that was set on a raised platform with a tub set in front of it around the size of a person laying down. Charlotte, resting her elbows on the edge of the vat, looked over to watch as the white liquid bubbled up.

Across from her, the Doctor bent down to inspect it closely. "And there you are," he whispered down to the flesh.

From across the vat, the brunette gave an annoyed eye roll.

"Meet the government's worst-kept secret- the flesh. It's fully programmable matter," Cleaves told them as Charlotte nodded along. "In fact, it's even learning to replicate itself at the cellular level."

"Right…" responded Amy, nodding her head but not quite getting what she said. "Brilliant. Lost."

"Okay…" Cleaves drew out. "Once a reading's been taken, we can manipulate its molecular structure into anything, replicate a living organism, down to the hairs on its chinny-chin-chin. Even clothes, and everything's identical- eyes… voice."

"Mind, soul," the Doctor adds on to what she said

She looked back at him with an eyebrow raised. "Don't be fooled, Doctor. It acts like life, but it still needs to be controlled by us from those harnesses you saw."

Blinking rapidly, Rory turns over to her. "Wait, whoa, oh, hold it. So… You're flesh now?"

"I'm lying in a harness back in that chamber," she said simply, catching all their attention. "We all are, except Jennifer, here." Glancing over to Jennifer, Charlotte saw her give a small smile as everyone else glimpsed at her from being mentioned. Cleaves continues, "Don't be scared. This thing? Just like operating a forklift truck."

"You said it could grow," the Doctor reminded her. "Only living things grow."

She looks over at him. "Moss grows. It's no more than that. This acid is so dangerous, we were losing a worker every week. So now, we mine the acid, using these doppelgangers, or 'gangers.' If these bodies get burnt or fall in the acid…"

"Then who the hell cares?" Interrupted Ganger Buzzer, looking over at Jennifer. "Right, Jen?"

Jennifer looks around sheepishly before speaking, "Well, the nerve endings automatically cut off, like airbags being discharged, except we wake up and get a new ganger." As she said this, the Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver.

"It's weird, but you get used to it." Ganger Jimmy shrugged.

Cleaves looks over to Jennifer. "Jennifer, I want you in your ganger. Get back to the harness." Nodding, Jennifer quickly left without a word.

Everyone's heads turned over to the Doctor as he pointed the sonic down at the Flesh, beginning to scan it.

"Hang on," said Ganger Buzzer, looking over at him. "What's he up to? What are you up to, pal?"

As the Flesh bubbling increased from the Doctor's interference, Charlotte took a step back as the Doctor struggled tearing his arm away from the Flesh. "Stop it. Ah!" Breathing heavily, he finally was able to pull his arm and the sonic away from the vat. Sliding the screwdriver back into his tweed jacket, he looked down at the Flesh with burning curiosity. "Strange. It was like, for a moment, it was scanning me." Hesitantly, the Doctor reached out to touch the Flesh with his palm.

"Doctor," Cleaves warned him.

His palm set on the liquid. Groaning, he tried to move his hand but it seemed to be glued to the liquid itself as he couldn't pull away at all. As his face screwed up from the struggle, Charlotte's eyebrows pushed together in deep worry. "Doctor, leave it alone," She urged him as he tried to fight off the liquid, "Get back!"

"Ahh! Ah! Gah!" With a shout, he finally released his hand from the vat. "I understand."

"Doctor, are you all right?" Asked Amy, worriedly looking over at him.

"Incredible," he answered in between his heaves. "You have no idea. No idea. I mean, I felt it in my mind! I reached out to it and it, to me."

"Don't fiddle with the money, Doctor."

Bewildered at her, the Doctor looks over to Cleaves. "How can you be so blinkered? It's alive, so alive." He looks around at the rest of the crew to get his point across. "You're piling your lives, your personalities, directly into it." As lightning begins crashing outside, the Doctor takes out the snow globe again. "It's the solar storm. The first waves come in pairs- pre-shock and full shock- it's close." He put the globe back in his pocket and stepped away from the vat.

"Buzz, have we got anything from the mainland yet?"

Ganger Buzzer frowned as he shook his head. "No, the comms are still too jammed with radiation."

"Okay, then we'll keep pumping acid until the mainland says stop." Cleaves turned to look over at the Doctor with a smirk. "Now, why don't you stand back and let us impress you."

Just a moment later, they all surround the tub placed in front of the vat as the flesh starts to be poured into it quickly. Charlotte, watching silently beside Cleaves as the flesh filled up half of the tub, noticed a pale nose poke out from the liquid and then the mouth and eyes. Slowly, the pale, slimy and undefined face reaches above the flesh… the mouth stretched open, and the eyes widened. And finally, with a gasp, Jennifer sits up straight in the tub- her face now completely defined, wearing the orange jumpsuit, and her hair even tied up in a ponytail.

"Well, I can see why you keep it in a church," says the Doctor, breaking the silence. "The miracle of life."

"No need to get poncey. It's just gunge," remarked Buzzer, looking over at him.

"Guys, we need to get to work," their leader ordered them, and they complied immediately.

Helping the newly formed Granger Jennifer jump out of the tub, Jimmy tells them, "Okay, everybody. Let's crack on."

Another crack of lightning caused them to pause whatever they were doing for a moment and look up. The Doctor looks around at the crew, "Did I mention the solar storm? You need to get out of here."

"Well, where do you want us to go?" Jimmy questioned him with a chuckle. "We're on a tiny island."

"Well, I can get you all off it."

Ganger Cleaves walks behind the Doctor to stand alongside her crew. "Don't be ridiculous," she tells him. "We've got a job to do."

Taking the snowglobe out of his pocket again, he scrunched up his eyebrows. "It's coming." Right after his word an alarm blared loudly, catching everyone's attention as the Doctor returned the snow globe to his pocket again.

"That's the alarm," said Ganger Jennifer, clearly becoming worried as her eyes widen.

"How do you get power?"

Cleaves glanced at the Doctor, "We're solar and we use a solar router. The weather vane."

"Big problem."

Jimmy calmly looked from the Doctor and back to his leader as she continued to work beside the emptied tub. "Boss, maybe if the storm comes back, we should get underground." He looks around at the crew, for any help in convincing her, but all of them stayed quiet. "The factory's seen better days. The acid pipes might not withstand another hit."

Once he ends, she straightens her back. "We have 200 tons of acid to pump out. We fall behind, we stay another rotation. Anyone want that?" The crew looked to each other with wide eyes.

"Please," said the Doctor, grabbing her by the crook of her elbow and pulling her to the side. "You are making a massive mistake here. You're right at the crossroads of it." As he continues, speaking just loud enough for them to listen in, Charlotte watches with her arms crossed from where she stands beside Rory. "Don't turn the wrong way. If you don't-" he points a finger at her. "If you don't prepare for this storm, you are all in terrible danger, understand."

Looking up at him, she clenched her jaw. "My factory, my rules," she whispered, walking away to stand with her team. Watching as she walked past, Charlotte rolled her eyes.

"I need to check the progress of the storm." He snapped his fingers at Jennifer. "Monitoring station."

Jennifer, who was caught off guard from being asked, hesitated to answer him. Watching from the sidelines, Charlotte got second-hand annoyance at the demanding snaps.

Snapping his fingers again, the Doctor grew impatient, "Monitoring station!"

"Three lefts, a right, and a left. Third door on your left."

He gave her a thumbs up. "Thank you," he tells her before walking out with Amy and Rory following behind him and with a hesitant Charlotte following after her two newfound best friends: Amy and Rory.

* * *

As the storm draws closer and the sky turns a bleak orange, the four enter the monitoring room- a circular room with a set of instruments and screens placed in the center. With the storm growing dramatically, the instruments were already sparking up as the Doctor rushed forward to them.

"The wave's disturbing the earth's magnetic field. There is going to be the mother and father of all power surges," he shouts to them as the storm practically causes the room to shake. "You see this weather vane, the cock-a-doodle-doo? It's a solar router, feeding the whole factory with solar power. When that wave hits…" He looks back at them. "Kaboom. I've got to get to that cockerel before all hell breaks loose." As he begins dashing away, he stops in the doorway to chuckle to himself. "I never thought I'd have to say that again." Looking at Amy, he snaps his fingers, "Ah. Amy, breathe." And, without any other word, he leaves them.

"Yeah!" She shouts back to him. "I mean, thanks, I'll try. Aren't you going to go with him?"

Charlotte shook her head with a frown. "Nope."

With Amy leading them, they leave the monitoring room together and head back to the Flesh room. As some of the lights spark slightly from where they hung on the walls, the storm continued to rage- being the only thing Charlotte could hear as she ran through the corridors and still the only noise she could make out when the finally reached the room.

Now, standing one beside the other at the front of the room, alone as the crew left before they came back, Charlotte looked between them. No words coming out of her until a large crash from outside brought all of them down to the floor with a shriek, the back of their heads hitting the ground hard and easily knocking each of them unconcious.

* * *

Charlotte blinks her eyes open. For a moment, as she woke up on the cold ground, she forgot where she was before instantly remembering the recent events. With a groan, she turned her head to the left to see Amy coming to and Rory on her left doing the same. All of them, laying on the ground, screwed up their faces from the pain their fall caused.

"For lack of better word- ow!" said Rory, causing Charlotte to snicker before quickly cutting off from the pain it caused.

* * *

Once standing up, and Charlotte taking a flashlight out from her windbreaker ("-always be prepared, Amelia, always-"), they made their way through the darkened corridors. Finding their way to the Harness room again, they entered to see the crew getting out of their harnesses. Buzzer, however, needed support from Jimmy and Dicken.

"I feel like I've been toasted," snarked Buzzer as Charlotte, Amy, and Rory rushed over.

Jimmy glances over at them with worry. "What the hell happened?"

"The Tsunami happened," Amy told him. "You're hurt."

"Well, it feels like the national grid's running through my bones, but, apart from that…" Buzzer was cut off as his face recoiled in pain.

Adjusting his arm around the man, Dicken says, "I hope the meter's not bust. I still want to get paid."

"Why-y-y?" Jennifer, standing separated from everyone else, wails as she holds her head in her hands. Seeing her, Charlotte took a step forward before Rory nearly bolted to Jennifer's side- and, knowing he'd do a great job, she took a step back to stand beside Amy.

Rory stood in front of her. "Jennifer! Jennifer. Hi," Lowering her hands, her face covered in tears, she looked up at him shakily. Resting his hands on her shoulders reassuringly, Rory looks down at her kindly.

"It hurt so much," she sobs.

He pulls her into a hug as she continues to let it all out. "Hey, hey, it's okay. It's over," assures Rory as she tried to swallow

down her sob.

"I couldn't get out of my harness," Jennifer tells him as she pulled out of the hug, but still held onto his arms tightly.

"Shh-shh-shh."

Gulping she looked up to him, "I… I thought I was going to die."

"Welcome to my world," said Rory, pulling her back into a hug as she let out the last of her cries. Looking over her head, he spotted Amy giving him a proud smile as she overlooked.

Charlotte nudges her with a grin. "You're a lucky lady," she tells her as he continues comforting Jennifer. Amy hums in agreement, just as the Doctor and Cleaves ran into the room. Her smile dropping, Charlotte faces the two as they rejoin them.

"Doctor, look, these are all real people," said Amy. "So where are their gangers?"

As the Doctor takes a quick cursory glance around the room, Cleaves answers her question, "Don't worry, when the link shuts down, the gangers return to pure flesh," she reassures her. "Now, the storm's left us with acid leaks all over, so we need to contact the mainland. They can have a rescue shuttle out here in no time."

Anyone was cut off from saying more as, further away, they all hear Dusty Springfield playing once again. Raising his head at the sound, Jimmy's eyebrows furrowed. "That's my record… Who's playing my record?"

"It's the gangers," Charlotte replied bluntly as she turned to the sound of music, trying to catch where it was coming from.

"No, it's impossible." Shaking her head, Cleaves looked around, trying to find another explanation herself. "They're not active- cars don't fly themselves, cranes don't lift themselves, and gangers don't-" but, as she looks in the direction of the music, her argument fell flat.

* * *

Through the thick, plastic strips hanging in the doorway, Charlotte walks into the dining hall. Where, set on a turntable, a record that was once playing sat still in the player. The long dining table also looked to be used, with food covering it and a short pyramid of cards, and all of the drawers and cabinets in the room opened wide- seemingly searched beforehand.

Going over to the record, as everyone else walks in, and the crew looking around in shock, Charlotte quickly spotted what she was looking for written on the center. "It's Dusty Springfield," she confirmed.

"No way," said Buzzer as he walked in.

"I don't…" Cleaves looks around. "I don't believe this."

"They could've escaped through the service door in the back," says Jimmy, pointing over to the said door.

"This is just like the Isle of Sheppey."

The Doctor sits down at the head of the table, his elbows resting on the edge as he looks at a house of cards curiously. "It would seem the storm has animated your gangers," he says.

With her nose scrunched up, Cleaves looked around the mess of a room. "They've ransacked everything."

"Not ransacked, searched," he corrects her.

"Through our stuff?"

"Their stuff," responded Charlotte.

From where he stood, holding a picture up from the table, Jimmy looks away from it and down at the Doctor. "Searching for what?"

"Confirmation. They need to know their memories are real."

Scoffing, Buzzer moved to stand in front of him. "Oh, so they've got flaming memories now."

The Doctor hardly bats an eye to him, but replies easily, "They feel compelled to connect to their lives, yeah."

Standing further apart from the group, Cleaves clenched her jaw as she tried to correct them once again, "Their stolen lives."

"No, bequeathed," said the Doctor, giving her a sharp look. "You gave them this. You poured your personalities, emotions, traits, memories, secrets- everything. You gave them your lives. Human lives are amazing. Are you surprised they walked off with them?"

"I'll say it again," began Buzzer, "Isle of Sheppey. Ganger got an electric shock, toddled off, killed his operator, right there in his harness. I've seen the photos. This bloke's ear was…" His hand raised to his ear, trying to mimic what he saw.

From what he said, Jimmy crossed his arms. "Even if this has actually happened, they can't remain stable without us plumbed into them." Turning over to Cleaves, he tried to see any sign of agreement from her, but saw nothing. "- Can they, boss?"

His boss looks around, staying silent as she looks back at Jimmy, only to shrug her shoulders. "I guess we'll find out," she says.

In worry, Charlotte looked over to Jennifer as she gasped loudly. Almost immediately, Rory went to her side. "Are you okay?" He asked her, "Do you need some water?"

With a hand at her stomach, she glanced around the room as everyone looked at her. "I feel funny. I need the washroom." She then runs out of the dining hall and to the washroom.

"I'll come with you," called Rory, following after her.

Standing beside her, Charlotte looks over at Amy. "Again, lucky lady," she whispered to her with a teasing grin. Rolling her eyes, Amy lightly hit her arm while she simply mocked pain and chuckled. Dicken, who stood to the right of Amy, sneezed loudly and apologized right after.

The Doctor, who was casually watching their interaction, turns back to the table in front of him. Leaning forward in his seat, he scrutinized the house of cards made in the mess placed on the table.

"That's me," Buzzer tells him, looking down at the pyramid. "It's good to have a hobby. So, what, my ganger did that, all on its own?"

The Doctor looked up to him. "Who taught you this?" 

"My grandad."

As he answers him, the Doctor remains calm, not wanting to further anger the already very confused man, "Well, your ganger's grandad taught him to do it, too. You both have the same childhood memories, just as clear, just as real."

Everyone looks to Buzzer as he tries to take in this information thrown at him by the Doctor. With his nose flared at the thought of his ganger being just the same as him, he glared his eyes as he glanced at the people watching him. "No," he snapped, pushing down the cards and began pacing back-and-forth.

"They're scared, disoriented, struggling to come to terms with an entire life in their heads." The Doctor looks around the room, trying to find one of the crew members that seemed to be agreeing with him. But, as he looked around at them, they looked to each other unsure of how to handle this situation themselves.

Next up: The Rebel Flesh Part Two (Anger and Gangers Part Two)

A/N: Writing this made me appreciate this episode more than before, honestly. Also, I love Rory.


	21. anger and ganger II

_The group, without Rory and Jennifer, gathered around the dining table. Charlotte sat beside Amy cross-legged with her back against the edge of the table. _The Doctor, who was standing up like most of them, stands at the microwave. Walking up to the table, Jimmy looked at his boss seriously, "We need to protect ourselves," he told her.

As he sets a container of food into the microwave, the Doctor asked him, "Are you a violent man, Jimmy?"

"No," he answers, tilting his head in confusion.

While the microwave hums, the Doctor turned his head to him. "Then why would the other Jimmy be?

"Don't tell me you can eat at a time like this, Doctor," says Cleaves, stopping in front of him with her arms crossed.

Placing his elbow on top of the microwave, he looked over at her. "You told me that we were out cold for a few minutes, Cleaves, when, in fact, it was an hour."

Confused on how that was a bad thing, she pushed her eyebrows together. "Sorry? I just assumed-"

"Well, it's not your fault," he interrupted her. "Like I said, they're disorientated. Amy, when you got to the alcove, who was in the harness?" The timer on the microwave dings, and as Amy answered him, he took out the plate with the food container on top with a towel.

"Um, Jimmy and Dicken were helping Buzzer out," she tells him as she looked at a paper set on the table.

"Jennifer?"

"She was standing on her own when we got to her."

The Doctor, still holding the plate with the towel, hands it off to Cleaves. With his eyebrows raised, he looked over to her as she held it with her bare hand. Seeing his odd stare directed at her as she held the plate, she looked back at him confusedly.

"It's hot," he whispered in the silence.

At that, she hisses and immediately dropped the plate to the ground - causing it to shatter at her feet with the container of food. "The transmitter's still a little rubbery," said the Doctor, stepping over the shattered plate and taking her hand to inspect it. "The nerve endings are not quite fused properly."

Pulling her hand away from him, she looked down at her hand, then back up at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"It's okay."

Her eyes widened, taking in what just happened as she still held her hand out in front of her. "Why didn't I feel that?"

"You will," he tells her. "You'll stabilize."

"No, stop it." In frustration, her eyebrows pushed together as her eyes wrinkled. "You're playing stupid games. Stop it!" Cleaves steps away, turning her back to him.

As he approached her slowly and carefully, Charlotte stands up from the seat. "You don't have to hide," he told her in a low whisper. "Please, trust me. I'm the Doctor."

With a loud hiss, Cleaves, with her face unformed, turned to the Doctor. Jumping to her feet, Amy steps forward alongside Charlotte. Buzzer, who was closely watching this, quickly grabs a knife set on the table but could only budge in Jimmy's grip.

"Where's the real Cleaves, you thing?!" He shouted at her, the knife still held in his hand. "What have you done with her?!"

Not paying any attention to Buzzer's lashing out, the Doctor gave all focus to Cleave's Ganger. "That's it, good. You remember. This is early flesh, the early stages of the technology. So much..." Reaching his hand out, only touching Cleaves' face slightly before she flinched. "... to learn."

"Doctor, what's happened to her?"

"She can't stabilize," he answers Amy. "She's shifting between half-formed and full-formed. For now, at least."

"We are _living!" _Cried Cleaves, pushing past the Doctor she sprints out of the dining room, screaming.

Once she left, running down the corridor, the Doctor glances around the room. "Let her go," he told them, dropping his hands to his side.

Charlotte turns to face the Doctor with her fists balled. "Doctor, Rory," she tried to remind him but he looked over to her with his head tilted.

"'Rory?'"

In exasperation, Amy spun around with her arms up in the air. "Rory!"

"Oh, Rory." Sighing, the Doctor finally remembered. "Rory! Always with the Rory!"

* * *

Each holding a flashlight, the Doctor, Amy, Jimmy, and Charlotte exited one of the many buildings that built up the Monastery. Turning a corner, Jimmy held his arms out, halting any of them from walking across a large patch of acid on the ground.

"The explosion must've ruptured the acid feeds," Jimmy said. "We're going to need the acid suits."

"No, no, no." Shaking his head, the Doctor looked up from the acid. "We haven't got time. Back, back, back." Backing away in the opposite direction, they began running.

* * *

Running down a spiral staircase, Charlotte was the first to run into the dim washroom. Looking over to the stalls, she instantly noticed a whole in one of the doors apparently punched through and now had a ray of light coming in from it.

"Rory!" Shouts Amy, as she entered the washroom.

"Of course," says the Doctor when he spots the stall's hole. "Jennifer's a ganger, too."

As Jimmy stares at the hole wide-eyed, Amy looked over to the Doctor, her eyebrows scrunched up in worry. "Doctor," she whispered to him, "you said they wouldn't be violent."

"But I did say they were scared and angry." He moves away from the group and goes to the mirror- where a large crack was made.

"And early technology is what you said," Jimmy reminded as he approached from behind. "You seem to know something about the flesh."

The Doctor turns back to face the three of them with his jaw clenched, looking to Amy who looks back to him in confusion. "Do you? Doctor?"

Knowing what he was thinking of, Charlotte's breath hitched as she looked between the two, her eyes landing on Amy the most.

"You're no weatherman," Jimmy correctly guessed. "Why are you really here?"

The Doctor shakes his head. "I have to talk to them. I can fix this." At that, he turns and began running up the staircase with Amy following and Charlotte not far behind.

After taking one last glimpse at the stall's hole, Jimmy followed at the end of the group. "Wait! What's going on?" He questioned as they ran up the stairs. "Where's the real Jennifer?!"

* * *

The four, with Charlotte in the lead, walked through a dark and musty tunnel. Still in the lead, Charlotte gasped as steam burst from a pipe head-level to her. Stopping in her tracks from the jump-scare, she looks down to see acid dripping on the ground mere inches from her foot.

The Doctor, seeing her close call, turns to the group. "It is too dangerous out here with acid leaks!" he stressed, looking around to all of them.

"We have to find Rory," says Amy.

He nods. "Yes, I'm going back to the TARDIS. Wait for me in the dining hall. I want us to keep together, okay?" He points his finger at them. "No more wandering off."

"And Rory?" Questioned Charlotte, pointing her flashlight over at him with her eyes narrowed. "What about him?"

"Well, it would be safer to look for Rory and Jennifer with the TARDIS." He then went on his own, walking down the corridor himself.

Jimmy, watching as he left, spots a box on the wall. "Here we go..." Going over to the box, he opened it up and pulls out a large container. "Distress flares," he clarified. Setting the box of flares on the ground, he closed the box hung on the wall only to jump back when seeing the Doctor- standing previously blocked from the box's lid.

"Exit?"

Letting out a deep breath, Jimmy points as he says the directions, "Keep going straight, can't miss it. But you're never going to get your vehicle in here."

Smiling to himself, the Doctor replies with, "I'm a great parker." He turned his back and began leaving for real.

"We really need those acid suits," Jimmy continues while Amy shuffles past a patch of acid along with Charlotte hesitantly following, keeping an eye out for acid leaks. "I've sent Buzzer and Dicken to get them."

"Fine and dandy. We're just going to find my husband, so..." Amy gave him an awkward thumbs-up. "Cheers." She turns around and faced the tunnel.

Jimmy, standing the flare box in his arms, looked over at her perplexed. "But, Amy, I wouldn't-"

"Neither would I," she told him. "But what can you do, eh?" Letting a deep breath out, she began heading down.

"At least wait for an acid suit! Aren't you gonna stop her?"

At the thought, Charlotte's nose scrunched up as she turned to face him. "There's no stopping her." She began backing up into the tunnel to follow her, all while saying to Jimmy, "So, yeah, see you later." Turning back around, she rushed to Amy and ignored Jimmy's pleas.

* * *

"So, are you going to tell me what's with you and the Doctor or..." Amy drew out as they walked through the musty corridors side-by-side, silent minus the periodic calls out for Rory.

"No time. I need to find Rory."

Amy, who held her own flashlight, pointed it to the brunette, to see her face pointed forward without even glancing her way. She points it back to the tunnel in front of them as they continue the search. "We have time. Nothing else to talk about other than the stench and neither of us want the reminder."

Charlotte raised her eyebrows. "Why, actually, I think the smell is quite nice."

"No, you don't," corrected Amy quickly. "I can hear you breathing through your mouth, you know."

"You caught me," Charlotte responded, feigning surprise. "Congrats. Now, I have to start _actually _looking for Rory."

Raising her eyebrows at what she said, Amy says, "You're not the only one looking for him, you know that?"

Charlotte nearly slapped herself- how could she have been so inconsiderate? She hardly even realized she was speaking as if she was the only one looking like it was an unconscious choice to say that. "Oh, my God. I didn't even realize, I'm sorry..." She took a breath out as she quickly found out the root of why she wanted to find Rory so badly. "It's just, a while ago, I was met with this choice... and I knew what would happen depending on what I picked. But, the decision I made, I've been thinking back at it, and I feel like it hurt this man- who reminds me of Rory."

"So, you're guilty for a decision you made that you think might have hurt someone like Rory, and that's why you're going out of your way to help him?" Amy paraphrased.

"Yeah."

"And that's why the Doctor got angry at you?" Amy guessed, however, she didn't believe it herself. Even with how Charlotte told it as something that could never be forgiven, she doubted that was the reason for their coldness to each other.

Charlotte shook her head. "No, no, no. It's something different than that... I- he. When I first got there, he didn't seem to trust I was even me!" She scoffed, thinking it was absolutely ridiculous. Amy, unnoticeably nervous, chuckled. "Throughout the whole adventure, I was being kind to the people there. I even saved his companion at the time from being _drugged_, and it was _not _fun. But still, at the end of the day, he said he didn't trust me and that hurt... But, I guess, I can't really ask him to 'cause I haven't done much."

Amy immediately pointed her torch to Charlotte, looking at her in utter seriousness. "I don't exactly know what he said, but I can assure you something did change with him, and he trusts you more than I can tell. And saying you haven't done much is just stupid, sorry."

Rolling her eyes, she still did not believe her. "It's okay to say it, I haven't."

"Yes, you _have,"_ stressed Amy. "I've seen people look their happiest around you. You've helped so many people, including aliens. People are _alive _because you told the universe to back off. Saying you haven't done anything is like telling Shakespeare he's a terrible writer- it's just not true!"

Charlotte blinks, she hasn't thought much on that side of the argument. She knew it existed, but yet she found all her thoughts on the problem overrun by the reminder of the people she couldn't save... She felt guilty and heartbroken she couldn't save them and, until now, she decided to look over the fact that she might not be in much of the wrong as she thought she was.

Those deaths were critical to how the universe went around, and nothing about them could change. Saving them could be a catalyst for dangerous changes. It'd take a while, but she now realizes that she can't be guilty of a death she couldn't change. She can be sad all she wanted but from now on Charlotte had to try to not to feel guilty for something she can't change.

Walking down the corridor, she thought back to the Hostess... Walking around, having fun, and living. Once she looked at the number of lives she saved in disappointment at the low number, but now she's turning her perspective and smiled. She saved someone and that's brilliant.

* * *

Later in the search for Rory, the two found themselves walking down a tunnel with a wooden door at the end. "Rory!" Charlotte called out as they slowly approached the door, but had no reply heard back from him.

"Rory," called Amy as they get closer to the door. "Rory." Knowing exactly what'd be behind the door, Charlotte stood back as Amy opened it with care. While Amy was stupefied in the doorway, looking into the room to see the Eyepatch Lady, Rory finally joined them. Seeing him return first, Charlotte's shoulders slumped down as she grinned over at him. Gasping, Amy slams the door closed and slowly backs up from it.

"Amy!" exclaimed Rory, causing her to choke on her breath as she turns to face him.

The shock he gave Amy stopped when she saw him. "You're okay," she sighed out. "What happened?" Stepping forward, Amy turned visibly confused when Jennifer steps out from behind Rory.

"She needs protecting," said Rory, noticing Amy becoming suspicious.

Two more people, Dicken and Buzzer, came rushing in from one entrance to their corridor. Dicken, clearly seeing the Ganger Jennifer beside Rory, says in shock further away, "Jen?"

"No, it's a ganger," Amy answered quickly, keeping her eyes dead-set on Rory. "Rory, listen-"

He pointed the torch to her. "No, _you _listen..." He looks back and forth from Charlotte and Amy to Dicken and Buzzer (who now stand closer to everyone else). "... _Nobody _touches her!"

* * *

With Jimmy now with them, everyone surrounds one side the messy lunch tables in the dining hall as Buzzer interrogates Jen, who sits alone on the other side of the table with her hands in her lap. Standing at the end of the table, Charlotte was across from where Amy and Rory stood on the other side. Hunched over the table, Amy watched Jennifer closely as she answered. Rory, with his arms crossed, was clearly concerned with how the crew members acted.

Charlotte didn't either. She knows the Ganger Jennifer to them is frightening, especially with what she left in the bathroom just before disappearing with Rory... But that is no excuse, as Rory is fine and is adamant in her safety. And while she knew what would happen soon, Charlotte hates how they keep speaking to her like she was the enemy, because, in this moment, she was anything but.

"You're a copy," Jimmy deduces from where he sat across from her, with his elbows resting on the table's edge. "You're just pretending to be like her."

"She isn't pretending," responded Charlotte as Amy and Rory whispered between themselves.

"She's a ganger!" Buzzer jumped in, looking over to Charlotte as if she was being an idiot. "Do I need to spell it out for you?"

She crossed her arms. "Just 'cause she's a ganger doesn't make her any less Jen."

"Yes, it does," continued Buzzer.

Amy, who has long since finished her conversation with Rory, now standing across from him, looks to the group. "Okay, let's not do anything at all until-" as the Doctor walks in, he says along with her, "the Doctor gets here."

"Hello," he greeted, with the four gangers joined behind him.

"Oh, look who the cat dragged in," remarked Charlotte to herself as Jimmy stood up from his spot, looking at his ganger in shock.

The Doctor sighed. "You sound happy to see me."

"I'm not."

Both of the Jimmys stared at each other open-mouthed. Non-Ganger Jimmy gulped as their eye contact remains. "This is..." his train of thought was lost as no words could explain the feeling of seeing himself.

"You're telling me," said the other Jimmy.

"All right, Doctor," began the Ganger Cleaves, who stands behind him amongst the other gangers. "You've brought us here... Now what?"

"Before we do anything, I have one very important question- has anybody got a pair of shoes I could borrow? Size 10. Although, I should warn you, I have very wide feet." While everyone looked at him strangely, the gangers glancing between themselves, he put his hands out for an emphasis on how wide his feet were.

* * *

Now wearing a new pair of shoes (brown boots borrowed from Buzzer), the Doctor sat on the edge of the table as he spoke to the gangers, who stand at one side, and the non-gangers, who stand on the other. Behind him, Amy stood with her hands in her pockets. Rory, on the Doctor's right, stands with Ganger Jennifer and Charlotte- the latter standing further apart from the two.

"The flesh was never merely moss," he told them, while they looked in between each other. "These are not copies. The storm has hardwired them. They are becoming people."

Jimmy looks away from his Ganger and looks at the Doctor with his face contorted. "With souls?"

"Rubbish." Dicken shook his head before sneezing into his elbow.

"Bless you," said Ganger Dicken. Cleaves' Ganger raises her eyebrow at him. "What?"

"We were all jelly, once," the Doctor commentated, moving his hands around as the thoughts came to him. "Little jelly eggs, sitting in goop."

While Charlotte's nose scrunched up at the thought, Amy responds, "Yeah, thanks. Too much information."

He ignores her. "We are not talking about an accident that needs to be mopped up. We are talking about sacred life. Do you understand?" Looking around, he saw them nod their heads. "Good. Now, the TARDIS is trapped in an acid pool. Once I can reach her, I can get you all off this island, humans and gangers, eh, how does that sound?" Both of the Buzzers looked between each other, obviously neither fond of the idea.

Jimmy grins from ear-to-ear at the thought. "Can we get home for Adam's birthday?"

His ganger turns to him. "What about me? He's my son, too."

_"You? _You really think that?"

"I feel it."

"Oh, so you were there when he was born, were you?"

From the memory, Ganger Jimmy smiles. "Yeah. I drank about 8 pints of tea and they told me I had a wee boy and I just burst out laughing." Ganger Jimmy chuckles and continues the story, "No idea why. I miss home. As much as you."

"Look," says the Doctor, "I'm not going to lie to you. It's a right old mess, this." He stands up from the table. "But, as you might say up North, 'oh, well, I'll just go to t'foot of the stairs.'" Laughing at himself, he looked around to see a tuff crowd. "Ha ha ha. Eh, bye-bye, gone. Or not. Good. Right. The first step is we get everyone together, then get everyone safe, then get everyone out of here."

Sighing, Charlotte had to remind him, "Don't forget Jennifer and Cleaves. They're both still missing."

He glanced back at her, and was close to saying something, when Jimmy offers, "I'll go and look for them." He begins heading to the door when his ganger self stops him.

"I'll give you a hand, if you like." He stood beside him, eyes narrowing as if testing if he'll decline. "Cover more ground."

Interested in what Jimmy will say, Charlotte steps forward to get a closer look as he nodded in response to his ganger's offer. "Yeah. Okay. Thanks."

As everyone watches the two Jimmys, none noticed as Cleaves enters the Dining Room from behind, holding a device in one hand with a wire twisting up to a prod in her other hand (that she held threateningly, pointing to the gangers). "This circus has gone on long enough!" She exclaims, finally catching their attention.

"Oh, great," sighed ganger Cleaves, facing herself in disappointment (but not surprise). "You see, that is just so typically me."

Cleaves held the prod tighter. "Doctor, tell _it _to shut up."

"Please, no. No! No!" Disgusted by what she was doing, the Doctor moved to stand closer, but only to the other end of the table.

"Circuit probe. Fires about, oh..." Cleaves looked up, as if in thought. "40,000 volts. It would kill any one of us, so I guess she'll work on gangers, just the same."

"It's interesting you refer to them as 'it,' but you call a glorified cattle prod a 'she.'"

Despite holding everyone at gunpoint, Cleaves remained completely calm, as if this was any other day. "When the real people are safely off this island, then I'll happily talk philosophy over a pint with you, Doctor."

"Don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself?" With her hands raised up to her shoulders, Charlotte stalked up to her. "Set the probe down."

Instead, Cleaves pointed it straight at her, causing Charlotte to stop dead in her tracks. "Step any closer and you'll be first," she threatened.

"You need to stop this!"

"I'll stop when this circus ends," responded Cleaves. "Even if it means they need to be destroyed."

"Give me the probe, Cleaves," said the Doctor, trying to stay pensive despite the probe just being pointed at Charlotte.

Still in the group of the other crew members, Ganger Cleaves looked at herself as if she was being funny. "We always have to take charge, don't we, Miranda? Even when we don't really know what the hell is going on..."

When Cleaves seemed to be distracted by her ganger's words, Ganger Buzzer pushes past and rushes up to her. However, she quickly pointed and fired the probe three times at him- causing bursts of blue electricity to push him to the ground. Once he fell, Charlotte moved to squat down beside his neck and desperately tried to find a pulse...

Kneeling on the other side of Buzzer's body, the Doctor couldn't find any signs of life either. "He's dead!" he announced. Amy, who sat beside Charlotte, took Buzzer's wrist but found nothing.

"We call it 'decommissioned,'" corrected Cleaves, still holding onto the probe and pointing it in the gangers' direction.

Snapping his head away from the body, the Doctor glares up at her. "You stopped his heart. He had a heart!" He spat out, his voice crescendoing to be the only thing they heard. "Aorta, valves- a REAL, HUMAN heart! And you stopped it!" For a moment, he looks away from her and back to Charlotte- who was focused on Buzzer, with her mouth wide open.

Despite knowing how crucial this was, she hated how she couldn't do anything. Like she was useless. Hanging onto the last strand of hope of finding a sign of life, Charlotte's eyebrows furrowed as her eyes rapidly looked over the body for _anything_ but constantly found nothing. And, as she searched, she missed the lines of frustration on the Doctor's face as he watched her; he wanted to help her, reassure her that there was nothing that could've stopped it, he wanted to explain why he said those things to her, but (just like when she first met him) he had to push it for later.

"Jen?" says Rory, as Jennifer's ganger began stepping back, her face becoming unformed again.

"What happened to Buzz will happen to us all, if we trust you!"

The Doctor, his hands up, stands as he says, "Wait, wait. Just wait!"

"No!" shouted Rory before running up to where Cleaves stood- the probe still in hand. Easily, he knocked her down without being hit and destroyed the weapon. All of the Gangers, taking use of this time, run out of the room together.

Groaning from being thrown onto the ground, Cleaves yells, "You idiot!" at Rory.

"Wait!" the Doctor shouted to the gangers, but no one paid him attention as they left. Rubbing his hand over his face, he spun to Cleaves, who brushes off her jumpsuit from being tackled. "Look what you've done, Cleaves."

"If it's war, then it's war."

Charlotte, standing up from the ground, crossed her arms, and looked at Cleaves with full fury. "It wasn't war until _you _made it war, Cleaves. No one was going to die until you killed him."

In a way that made Charlotte's stomach churn, Cleaves shrugged her shoulders. "This was going to happen no matter what. Isle of Sheppey, remember that? It's kill or be killed now. Now, It's us and them." She looks to Jimmy, Dicken, and Buzzer. "Us... and them."

Dicken looked down before meeting his leader's eyes. "Us and them."

"Us and them," said Jimmy, quickly, as if he didn't like it himself.

Squaring up her shoulders, Charlotte watched as Buzzer responded the same. Even after meeting the Cybermen, at this moment, she'd give Cleaves the number one spot of her list of terrible people/creatures she's met on her adventures.

* * *

Charlotte was sitting on the edge of the table, alone... She didn't want to be with Amy and Rory as they had a whispering-argument as they covered up Buzzer's ganger, obviously, she didn't want to stand beside the Doctor in the room's front, and the crew members weren't good company.

"The most fortified and defendable room in the monastery?" The Doctor asked himself but got no answer in return. He turns his head to the crew members. "Cleaves! The most fortified and defendable room in the monastery?"

"The chapel," she answered.

"Thank you."

She then adds, "Only one way in, stone walls, two feet thick."

Letting out a breath, the Doctor turned his head to face the wall again. "You've crossed one hell of a line, Cleaves. You've killed one of them. They're coming back. In a big way."

* * *

After running through the monastery tunnels, where they called out Jennifer's name multiple times, Charlotte was one of the last to run into the chapel. However, she stopped in the doorway beside the Doctor and Amy when Rory stopped in the tunnel... hesitating to come in the room.

"Rory Pond," said the Doctor, urging him to come in. A woman's scream is heard, only causing Rory to rub his hand over his face.

Stepping forward into the hall, Amy gave him a look. "Rory? Come on."

"Jen's out there," he says. "She's out there and she's on her own."

The Doctor looked back to the room, where the humans watched what was happening closely. "Well, if she's got any sense, then she's hiding. Rory!"

"I can't leave her out there!"

"Rory, come on!" insisted Charlotte. Even knowing he'd be fine, a part of her wanted eyes on him at all times.

"I know you understand that," he replies.

Amy gives him a stern look. "Get in here. Get in here!"

The gangers, wearing their acid suits, began marching towards them from the end of the tunnel. "There they are!" Exclaimed Cleaves' ganger as they approach. Seeing this, Rory quickly ran down a side corridor.

Amy, however, stood still in shock. "_Amy_," stressed the Doctor before pulling her by the arm and into the chapel where everyone now stood.

Charlotte, slamming the door shut, immediately began helping the crew members as they blocked the door while the Doctor calmed Amy down. But, when a voice came from the darkened corner of the room, her attention quickly changed and moved to stand on Amy's other side.

"Show yourself." Carefully, the Doctor took a step forward. "Show yourself!" From the shadows, the voice groaned as if in pain.

Stepping back, Charlotte began helping the crew create their blockade against the gangers again. When she asked, she passed Cleaves the barrel and pushed a small table with plenty of knick-knacks on top in front of the door.

Jimmy, who stood to the side of the forming blockade chuckled to himself, "This is insane! We're fighting ourselves."

"Yes, it's insane," the Doctor agreed, from where he stood closer to where the voice was coming from, but not too far away from the group. "And it's about to get even more insanerer." He turns to Amy and Charlotte when they stood beside him when nothing more could be added to the blockade. "Is that a word?" Focusing on the shadowy area, he shouted out, "Show yourself! Right now!"

"Doctor!" Snapped Amy. "We are trapped in here and Rory is out there, with _them._ Hello! We can't get to the TARDIS and we can't even leave this island."

The Doctor began speaking, but his face turns stunned... as the Doctor beside them was silent. Everyone turns to the dark area of the chapel as the voice of the Doctor continues to speak, "-Unexpected, frankly, a total, utter, splattering mess on the carpet, but I'm certain, 100% certain, that we can work this out." Finally, from the darkened area, the Doctor's ganger approached with an undefined face. Standing still, he straightened his bowtie. "Trust me. I'm the Doctor."

"Well, this just got two-times more annoying," Charlotte mumbled under her breath.

_Next up: The Almost People (Flesh and Afresh)_

A/N: the ganger's faces are so gross


	22. flesh and afresh

_Standing by with the rest of the group, Charlotte watched as the Ganger Doctor, whose face is now defined, bends forward in pain as he took in all of the Doctor's memories. _Her eyes flickered between them as the original Doctor stepped forward cautiously. While she was still angry at him, not a single part of her wanted to see him in that much pain- even if he was a ganger.

"What's happening?" The Doctor, standing closer to the ganger than the others, asked him.

"I wonder if we'll get back," he said in between his struggle for air, "Yes, one day…" Letting out another loud groan, his back arched in pain. "I've reversed the polarity of the neutron flow!"

"The Flesh is struggling to cope with our past regenerations. Hold on!"

The Doctor's ganger moaned as he moved from a hunchback position to a rigid stance with his hand out. "Would you like a jelly-baby?" He asked in a far different voice before going back to his normal one when saying, "Why? Why!?"

Stepping forward, the Doctor now stands in front of him. "Why? Why what?"

"I don't know!" He stumbled backward before changing his voice to match the Tenth Doctor, "Hello. I'm the Doctor." Hunching down, he put his hands on his knees. "No, let it go, we've moved on!"

As the original Doctor helped his ganger stand up straight, and the ganger grips tightly on his tweed jacket, Charlotte pulls Amy back when she makes her way forward. Even with her good intentions, Charlotte knew no one could disturb the two (even Amy).

"Hold on, hold on, you can stabilize!" Said the Doctor as he kept his panting self standing straight.

"I've reversed the top hat of the neutron flow. Would you like a…" The thought drifted away as he looked up at himself with glassy eyes. "Doctor… Doctor… I'm… I'm the- I can't."

"No, listen, hold on. Hold on!"

Yelling out a long, "NO!" the Doctor's ganger pushes him away, returning to his undefined state and yelling out in pain. While the banging from the other gangers becomes easier to hear, the Ganger Doctor's hands fly to his head.

Charlotte, moving away from her spot watching the Doctors' interaction, goes to the crew members and helps them add more stuff to the barricade. All of a sudden, the gangers' knocks stopped and were replaced by an eerie silence. Standing by, Charlotte waited for them to begin pounding on the door again.

Buzzer's thoughts were the same. "I think I liked it best when they were being nosy."

After humming in response to Buzzer, Charlotte moves over to where the Doctors stood (the original at a distance from the ganger as his hands covered his head). "I know we aren't getting along, right now," she says, her head held high as she looked between the two. "But we need to cooperate. We need all the hands we can get- so, if you could hurry up…" she looks at the ganger as his head rose, now looking identical to the other's- "_stabilizing_?"

"Charlotte!" Exclaimed the Ganger Doctor closely before his grin dropped. "What time is it?"

"I don't know!" She huffed out as her arms crossed. Looking between them, she noticed the lack of a hustle to help. "Doctors, c'mon!"

The original stayed focus on himself. "Cybermats," he said pointedly.

"Do we have time for this?" Questioned the ganger.

Charlotte shook her head. "Nope. Now, help."

"We make time. I'd like more proof that you're me." He tilts his head in a way that urges for an answer. "Cybermats?"

"Created by the Cybermen. They kill by feeding off brainwaves."

While the Doctor continued interrogating himself, Charlotte rushed back to the crew members as they surrounded the door. Amy, who stood with them, quickly turned to her with a troubled look. "They say they don't have _any _guns. What do we do?"

Rubbing her hand across her face, Charlotte turns to Buzzer, the closest crew member to her. "Why are there no guns? Not even after the Isle of Sheppey? Don't want to protect yourselves in case...?"

Jimmy instead, from where he leans against the door, answers, "Why would we have guns? We're in a factory. We mine." He chuckles under his breath. "They would've got them by now!"

"Right," drew out Charlotte, knowing she stood corrected in the matter of guns. As the ganger's pounding on the other side increased, her eyes drifted down to the door, where a hissing noise came from and smoke flew off. Jimmy stood away from the door. "What's that?"

"Acid," says Amy.

While the Doctors spoke quietly to each other, separated from the group, everyone else took something in their hand to hold as a weapon in case they got in. Amy, holding a torch from earlier, held it up as she watched the door. Charlotte stuffs her hands inside of the windbreaker… Even with the bigger-on-the-inside pockets, there was only her phone and candy wrappers making up the population. So, taking out the flip-phone she stole on her first day, she opened it and held it as if it were something much more impressive.

However, the Doctors still chatted, one of them even chuckling, like nothing was happening. Equally as frustrated as Charlotte, Amy calls over to them, "Doctor, come on!"

Saying one last thing, the Doctors walked in step to them and stood side-by-side. "Hello!" They said in sync, catching their attention. "Sorry…"

The Ganger Doctor, who Amy noticed was the one wearing the black shoes, continued, "But we had to establish a few…"

"Ground rules," finished the original, who Amy noticed wore the brown boots, as they were borrowed by Buzzer. Charlotte, however, knew they would switch the shoes anyway, so she paid little attention to them.

"Formulate a…"

The original interrupts, "Protocol."

The Ganger Doctor looked at himself with a goofy smile. "Protocol. Very posh."

"A protocol between us. Otherwise…"

"It gets horribly embarrassing and potentially confusing."

Charlotte let out a puff of air through her nose. "Nice job figuring out that problem, now can we figure out the problem at hand?"

The Ganger Doctor points at her and says after a pause, "That's passive-aggressive."

Nodding his head, the original faced him. "She's passive-aggressive when she's angry."

Remembering, the Ganger Doctor shook his head before, along with the ganger, focused on Amy to say simultaneously, "Breathe!"

"What?" Responded Amy in confusion.

"We have to get you off this island," says the Ganger Doctor adding closely after, "And the gangers too."

Holding up an object above her shoulder, Cleaves turned to him. "Sorry, would you like a memo from the last meeting? They're trying to kill us!"

"They're scared," he replied.

Amy, who looks at the original Doctor, says, "Doctor, we're trapped in here."

"Right, see, I don't think so," he said as he steps forward, looking up to the ceiling as he continues, "The Flesh Bowl is fed by cabling from above."

"But where are the earthing conduits?" Added in the Ganger Doctor.

Looking down at the floor, the original spoke up, "All this piping must go down into a tunnel or a shaft or something, yes? With us?" He moves to the front of the room and, sliding a panel away from where it leans on the wall, reveals a grate. Turning to the group, his smile grew. "Yowza! An escape route."

Amy turns over to Charlotte and mouths 'yowza' with her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. After shaking her head, in just as much of annoyance, she turns over to him with her head cocked to the side. "You know," started the Doctor, still standing beside the grate. "I'm starting to get a sense of just how impressive it is to hang out with me."

"Do we tend to say 'yowza?'" Asked the Ganger Doctor.

"That's enough, let it go, okay?" he replied. "We're under stress."

Not long later, they were all in the tunnel guarded by the grate. The original Doctor, who is at the back of the group beside Cleaves, locks the grate shut with the sonic as the gangers follow the buzzing sound. Standing on the other side of the grate, the Ganger Cleaves looks at herself as her original smirked before quickly following after everyone else.

* * *

"The army will send a recon team," says Buzzer while they walk, not too long after getting out of the shaft, down a tunnel. Charlotte glanced up from the ground, as she kept an eye out for acid leaks, and up to Buzzer. Thankfully, she saw no leaks but that didn't make her feel any less suspicious.

"We need to contact the mainland," Cleaves told them as she leads the group.

Tilting her head, Charlotte replies back, "You're forgetting a few people in that plan, Cleaves."

"Takes a long time to find someone in a maze," mused the original Doctor, stopping in his spot as he took a glimpse around the tunnel. "I bet you lot have got a computer map."

"If we can get the power running, we can scan for them." As soon as she finished her answer, Cleaves began coughing into her elbow. Quickly after her, everyone else began coughing too- even the Doctors. While coughing into her own elbow, Charlotte, thinking of Amy's situation, used her other arm to help her stand straight.

"Doctor, you said earlier to breathe," said Amy in between her coughs.

"Very important, Pond," the original Doctor reminds her. "Breathe."

"Yeah, I'm struggling to," she replies, her voice raspy.

Holding in a cough, the Doctor says in haste, "Acid interacting with the stone…"

"- Creating an asphyxiant miasma!" The Ganger Doctor finished, from where he stood to the side.

"A what?" Snapped Cleaves before returning to her cough.

"Chokey gas. Extra heavy. If we can get above it…" says the Ganger Doctor until being cut off by another string of coughs.

Cleaves, listening to him, ran to the front of the crowd, and in between her coughs hollers, "The evac tower. This way!"

Charlotte, even with her grudge on the woman, knew she had to follow her down the tunnel. And with her hand covering her mouth as the violent coughs continued, she ran behind her to the evac tower.

* * *

Eventually, they all made it into the power room in the evac tower. A room that was just as dimly lit as every other part of the monastery and a row of control panels. Charlotte, while giving her last few coughs, holds the door open as she ushers everyone else in, most of the crew members rushed over to the control panel.

Locking the door, Charlotte goes to Amy's side as the redhead puts a hand on her hip. "Oh! I think I coughed so hard I pulled a muscle or something."

"It's okay. It's easing off," the Doctor, who stood on her other side, assured her before joining the crew around the front.

As a bell chimes for midnight, Jimmy looked up to the ceiling. Charlotte gave a small smile to Amy before saying to her, "Just… take it easy for a second."

Not long later, Charlotte helps Jimmy and Cleaves search for the cabinets at the sides of the room for anything useful. When Charlotte found they worked well by themselves, she went over to the control panel to stand on one side beside Amy and across from where the two Doctors finished each other's sentences as they popped up and down from where they work on the other side of the console.

"No getting away from it, one of you was here first," she says.

Who Amy thinks is the original Doctor stands up on their left. "After the Flesh scanned me, I had an accident with a puddle of acid. Now new shoes, a situation which did not confront me learned self here…" He drawled off before going back to the ground.

"That satisfy for you, Pond?" Questioned who she thought was the Ganger Doctor, standing to their right.

"Don't call me Pond, please." Both Doctors rested their elbows on the console and stared at her, knowing their little experiment was working.

"What?" Asked Amy, looking back at them.

"Interesting," says the 'Ganger' Doctor. "You definitely feel more affection for him than me."

Amy sighs. "No, I… Look you're fine and everything, but he is the Doctor. No offense. Being almost the Doctor is pretty damn impressive."

"Amy, they're the same," insisted Charlotte.

Shaking her head, Amy replies, "Yeah, but he's just less? You know what I mean."

"Yes! Communication a go-go!" says the 'original' Doctor before Charlotte had a chance to respond, setting the wires he was working on on the console's edge. Facing the console, Charlotte sat at the edge of the group when everyone rushed over to stand at the console as the screen readied itself.

"Find Rory!" directed Amy while Cleaves typed furiously. "Show me the scanny, tracky screen. Come on, Rory, let's be having you."

When the map pulled up on the screen, Cleaves took a quick look before saying, "There's no sign of him anywhere."

"Come on, baby, show yourself," muttered Amy as she stares at the screen for any sign of him.

Cleaves pulls forward the transmitter and twists a switch on the console. Putting it up to her face she says loud and clear, "St. John's calling. Emergency Alpha." After a few seconds of silence, she repeats herself just as confidently, "St. John's calling the mainland. Are you receiving me, Captain? Come in. We'll never get a signal through this storm." She twists a nob on the console as static is only heard. "St. John's calling the mainland. Come in, this is urgent."

Finally, over their radio a voice came on, causing Charlotte to grin. _"We're just about reading you, St. John's," _the man from the mainland said. _"How are you doing? We've had all kinds of trouble"_

"Request immediate evacuation. We're under attack. The storm's affected our gangers. They're running amok."

Even from the radio, the man seemed shocked. _"Your gangers?"_

"Yes," answers Cleaves, "our gangers are attacking us. We need you to take us off the island immediately and wipe them out."

Hearing this, the Doctors share a look and the one who Amy believes to be the original walks back. Charlotte, taking what she said in too, glances between them before paying attention to Cleaves as she replied to the man.

"You'll need to airlift us off the roof of the evac," she tells him while the Doctor began pacing behind them. "And Captain, any further transmission sent by me must come with the following code word." She began typing 'Bad boy' into the computer. "I'm typing it, in case they're listening in."

She sends it, and not long later, her responds, _"Got it. We'll swing in, get you out and decommission the Flesh."_

* * *

The original crew members surround a barrel as they prepare themselves for the soon-coming evacuation. Buzzer, as he puts on a new pair of rubber gloves, says for all to hear, "We've got to get out of here."

"We're not leaving without them," asserted Amy, who spun her chair to face him.

"I want 'em found too, but it's about casualties, innit?" He crossed his arms. "Can't be helped."

Sitting upon a disregarded acid barrel, Charlotte rolled her eyes behind her eyelids. "No one will be hurt if you _trust _us in making a _plan_," she mumbles. At her emphasis at those words, the believed Ganger Doctor, who was the only one that heard her and stood by himself, cringed.

"Right, not getting it," says Amy to the Doctor sat beside her. "Why exactly are you making a phone call?"

From a distance both the other Doctor and Charlotte watch separately as he answers, "Because, Amy, I am and always will be the optimist, the hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams." He spun around in his chair and then spun Amy's chair around, causing her to laugh. "The wheels are in motion. Done."

Amy's chair stopped facing the other Doctor. Looking back over to the Doctor beside her, she began speaking to him and Charlotte quit eavesdropping. Resting the back of her head onto the cool wall, she watched as something seemed to catch Amy's eye at the side of the room.

The redhead stood up and stalked towards it, her eyebrows furrowed as she recognized the thing before… How could that window seemingly appear out of thin air? When Charlotte tried to see the apparition, she saw only a blank wall. But Amy could only watch silently as the lady in the eyepatch looked at her before sliding the window close. Gasping, she turns back around.

Still sitting at the console, a Doctor tilts his head. "Amy? What happened?"

"It's her again," she told him as she sat down, facing him as she breathed heavily.

"It's who again?"

"There's a woman I keep seeing, a woman with an eyepatch," Amy glances between him and Charlotte when the latter joins them with crossed arms. "... and she has this habit of sliding walls open and staring at me. Doctor? Charlotte?"

Charlotte patted her back. "Believe me, it's nothing." She swats away the reassuring hand.

"It's a time memory. Like a mirage," said the Doctor before patting her knee and spinning back to return to console work.

The other Doctor groans and rubs his head. "It's in my head," he says to himself before making his way to the door.

"Hey, hold on!" exclaimed Jimmy, receiving no reaction.

"Don't let him go," says Cleaves as he left the room.

Amy glances over at Charlotte and rose and eyebrow at her, only to have her tilt her head back. Sighing, Amy stood up and went over to the door, "Leave it to me," she says before going after him.

Sitting down in Amy's chair, Charlotte faces the Doctor while he continued to work at the console. After she clears her throat, he turns his head to her, and before he returned his focus back she asks him, "Why did you say that? Why'd you say you didn't trust me?"

That question has been nagging at her since he told her that. After all she did, why did he not trust her? Did she do something she didn't know of? She was going to ask him later when this was all over, but instead, she decided to make use of this time now… As she just remembered what will happen right after this finishes, she thinks it might be smart to just ask now. Plus, she knew she'll work better with him if this question wasn't blaring in her head whenever she saw him.

And now that there's two of them, it had to be answered.

"I…" He groaned in frustration- as much as he wanted to do it, he hated the explanation part of making up. "Back then, I didn't like you, at all. And when you got there that time, I was already put-off by how you knew more about me than I knew of you. I was getting _highly _suspicious of you so I poked at your every action, turning it into something worse than it was because I didn't trust you. And…" the Doctor paused, already not liking the sound of the words in his head, "I was wrong. Not long after, I began trusting you."

Charlotte leans forward, resting her elbow on her knee and her chin in her palm; she could hardly hold in her grin. "You're the Ganger, right?" She questions, quiet enough no one else could hear her.

"You already know that answer." The Doctor glances back at the console, flicking a switch before focusing on her again. "And what do you think of that?" While Charlotte gives her thoughts he listened in as he worked at the console.

"Well… It's confusing. You aren't him, but he isn't you…" She shakes her head. "I think Amy's spending too long focusing on which one of you is the 'right one' when there isn't one. You're both the same person, you just happen to be an hour-ish old." At that, the Doctor chuckled.

"Why were you even suspicious of me?" Charlotte interrogated him, but by the way she started it off with a laugh, he knew she was taking half-heartedly.

"Oi! You weren't exactly overjoyed to see me when you got here."

She shrugged. "Point taken but not understood."

All of a sudden, Amy reenters the room with a scowl, and Charlotte sits up straight in her spot. "Keep him away from me!" She says, walking over to stand at the console as the door slams shut behind the Doctor.

"Did you sense it?" He questions himself urgently.

"Briefly," he responds, looking between Amy and him. "Not as strong as you." 

The original Doctor looks over to the flustered Amy. "Amy, I'm sorry," he apologizes.

"No, you keep away! We can't trust you." At the use of the word, Charlotte sighed. The irony.

He held his hands in the air as he began pacing in the open space. "It would appear I can connect to the Flesh."

"Well, you are Flesh," says Amy.

"I'm beginning to understand what it needs."

"What _you _want," stressed Amy. "You are it."

Charlotte swung her chair to face her for a moment, raising her eyebrows, before focusing on what the Doctor had to say. However, Amy didn't seem changed at all.

"It's much more powerful than we thought." He looks over at Cleaves, who previously moved to stand on the Ganger Doctor's left. "The Flesh can grow, correct?"

She thought for a moment before nodding. "It's cells can divide."

He rubs his hands together then walks over to stand in front of Cleaves. As she was near, Charlotte looked up to him as he says in a hush, "Well, now it wants to do that at will. It wants revenge. It's in pain, angry. It wants revenge." 

Amy nods to herself. "I was right, you're not the Doctor. You can't ever be. You're just a copy." Charlotte looks over at the actual Ganger Doctor as he glanced over at the redhead.

"Doctor," starts Cleaves in an eerily calm tone, "it might be best if you stayed over there for now, hm?"

"Hold on a minute. Hold your horses," began the Doctor, looking up at Cleaves. "I thought I'd explained this. I'm him, he's me." As if he was ready to use brute force, Buzzer moves forward.

Cleaves looks down at the Doctor. "Doctor, we have no issue with you. But when it comes to your ganger…" She slowly glanced up at him, meeting his eye.

"Don't be so absurd."

She doesn't listen and takes charge once again. "Buzzer?" Cleaves calls to him.

He nods, going to grab an empty barrel and sets it on the other side of the room. When he pats the top of it, the Doctor looks over to Cleaves unbelieving- only to get a nod in the barrel's direction. Dramatically straightening his bowtie, he makes a point as he moves over to the barrel. Sitting on top of the barrel cross-legged, he raises his eyebrows to everyone else. "Nice barrel," he said, "very comfy. Why not?"

"This is hardly necessary," Charlotte tells Cleaves. She looks up at her with a dead set expression, only to be met with Cleaves looking down at her without taking what she said into consideration.

"It is necessary when we are being threatened." 

"Did you hear a threat?" Charlotte asked the Doctor beside her, when he shook his head she hummed to herself. "Me either. Weird."

* * *

A few minutes later, Cleaves and Jimmy stand at the console as a man speaks over the radio. _"This is the shuttle,_" he says. _"We're right above you, but we can't get low enough. Gamma static could fry our nav-controls. Sit tight._" As he continues speaking, the Doctor pulls out the sonic screwdriver. _"We'll get to you. Just…" _The transmission breaks off and Jimmy tries to call out to any of them.

The Doctor points the sonic at Cleaves and scans her. Looking at the results, his eyebrows scrunch up.

Amy crosses her arms. Even after looking over the map enough times to draw it from memory, she still couldn't find Rory. "I can't find Rory," she tells the Doctor. "I'm going out there."

"We could use the sonic to track him," he says, looking away from the results for a moment. "Humans and gangers give off slightly different signals. The sonic can tell the difference."

Raising an eyebrow, Amy stood in front of him. "Oh, so the sonic knows gangers are different, so the other Doctor _is _different."

"He's the Doctor," Charlotte emphasized.

"Not to me." Amy shakes her head. "I can tell."

"Sure you're not prejudiced?" 

"Nice try, but I know, okay?" replies Amy. "We've been through too much. You're my Doctor. End of."

* * *

As everyone's' backs were turned to the console, no one noticed a once dead screen flicker to life until Buzzer points it out. Standing up from her chair, Charlotte looks over Amy's shoulder at the screen, immediately seeing Rory and Jennifer walk through a tunnel together.

Leaning forward, Cleaves immediately knew where the two were going. "They're heading for the thermostatic room," she says.

"Let's go get them," directs Amy. The Doctor flips the sonic screwdriver in his hand before throwing it to the other Doctor, who still sits upon the barrel across the room. Catching it easily, the Doctor slid it into his jacket.

"Hang on," says Amy.

Boggled, Cleaves looks down at the Doctor. "We can't let him go. Are you crazy?"

Right then and there, the Ganger Doctor would have scoffed. "Am I crazy, Doctor?"

Sitting on the barrel, he looked over at his counterpart as he recounts a memory, "Well, you did once plumb your brain into the core of an entire planet…" Thinking he'd end the story there, the Ganger Doctor nodded with a grin until it faded off as he added, "... just to halt its orbit and win a bet."

"He can't rescue them. I'm going."

"Do you know, I want him to go." The Doctor stands up and faces her as if testing Amy to say more. "And I'm rather adamant."

"Well, then, he'll need company, right, boss?" Asked Buzzer. "It's fine. I'll handle it."

The Doctor, now standing up from his barrel, snap his fingers and pointed at Buzzer. "Thank you, Buzzer. It'll be alright. I'll find him." At that word, that Doctor leaves the room with Buzzer following close behind.

"I can't explain it to you now," the Doctor says to Amy, "but I need you to trust him. Can you do that for me, Amy?"

"And what if you're wrong?"

* * *

Standing at the console, Cleaves watches as the temperature gauges. Once reporting, Charlotte replies from beside her, "Rory and Jennifer probably shut off the cooling vents, then." Standing at her side, the Doctor looks at the

"Why do that?" Questioned Dicken. "They'll kill us."

"There's a million gallons of boiling acid under our feet…"

"And it's heating up the whole island," responded the Doctor. "How long 'till it blows?" At his word, a loud explosion is heard from elsewhere in the monastery. Feeling the ground beneath her feet shake, Charlotte's eyes grew as she held onto the console.

"Gangers or no gangers, we need to get the hell out of here!" says Dicken the second it quiets down.

Charlotte gives the man a look as she replies to him, "We'll leave with _everyone _else."

Taking hold of the transmitter, Cleaves calls out to the shuttle, "Shuttle! We need evac. Where are you? Can you hear me?" On the other end, they all hear static. "Can you…?" Cleaves dropped the transmitter as her face screws up in pain. Bending forward onto the console, she winces as she brought a hand up to her forehead.

"Cleaves?" The Doctor, standing on her side, puts a hand on her shoulder. "Cleaves, sit down." He helps her sit down into a chair.

She pushed his hand away. "I'm fine," Cleaves told him, but as her face recoils, it was clear she wasn't 'fine.'

For a moment, the Doctor waited until she seemed to be recovering a bit to ask her, "Cleaves, what is it?"

"It's nothing," she grumbles.

Charlotte couldn't believe that for a second. "Tell him. He might be able to help."

"I'm waiting for results," she tells her, "so let it go."

"It's a very deep parietal clot." Charlotte, from where she stood on Cleaves' right, gave him a look. Even if he was incredibly smart, how the hell could he tell from such little context?

Furrowing her eyebrows, Cleaves looks at him strangely. "How could you possibly…?" As he sighed, she pauses. "Inoperable?"

"On Earth, yes."

"Well seeing as Earth is all that's on…" She stops in her tracks when he rose his eyebrows. Humming, Cleaves smirked. "I'm no healthy spring chicken, and you're no weatherman. Right?" Before he could answer, and crash explodes from another part of the monastery, and the aftershock shakes the floor of the power room.

"Something just cracked!" Amy hollers to them from where she stands beside the exit with Jimmy. "I heard it."

"Yeah, we can't stay here!" Shouts the Doctor as another quake begins. "Let's go!"

Charlotte quickly grabs a flashlight that sat on top of the console and rushed to the door. However, as another explosion shakes the room and an alarm begins blaring, Cleaves didn't seem to budge from her post until a rumble caused her to stumble back and the console to begin sparking up. Charlotte looked over at Cleaves in worry as she returned to the console, speaking into the transmitter uselessly.

Despite her feelings towards Cleaves and what she did earlier that did, Charlotte rushed back to the console and grips her elbow. "Cleaves? Come on. The console's dead." Pulling her along, she let go not long later as they began running out of the room behind everyone else.

_Next up: The Almost People Part Two (Flesh and Afresh Part Two)_


	23. flesh and afresh II

_**Led by Cleaves, the group was walking in a red-lit tunnel when they turn into a hallway. **_And the sight Charlotte saw caused her face to recoil as she held a torch up to the wall… Where the backs of eyeballs were melted onto the wall but they still seemed able to watch every single one of their movements.

"Ah," says the Doctor as he looks at them, seemingly unfazed. "The eyes have it."

Amy looks towards the eyeballs in confusion. "Why are they here?" she asks.

"To accuse us." After answering, the Doctor moves down the hallway.

"Let's just ignore them," says Charlotte, who has trouble herself tearing her eyes away from them. Those eyes sent chills up her spine as she walked away and she had to hold in the urge of glancing back, as she knew they were still stuck on the wall following them as they turn a corner.

It wasn't long later when as an alarm blares, they stand in the Thermostatic Chamber. While the Doctor and Cleaves stand at the control panel, working in a haste, Charlotte stands among Amy, Jimmy, and Dicken. But as another explosion causes the floor beneath their feet to rumble, Charlotte shouts over the sparkling machinery and the alarms, "We need to get out of here!"

With Amy rushing out first, they all began running back into the tunnel. Hardly even out of the doorway, she runs into Rory, who stood in the hall with Jennifer. "You alright?" He asks them.

"Thank God," sighed Charlotte when she saw him. For a second there, she was beginning to get worried.

"Oh, Rory!" Amy rushed up and hugs him tightly. "Oh, Rory."

He pulls away and begins looking around to the rest of the group. "There's a way out," he tells them. "Jennifer found it. A secret tunnel under the crypt."

"From the crypt?" Cleaves repeated as a question. "It's not on the schematics."

"It runs out of the monastery." Focusing on the Doctor, Rory adds, "Maybe even under the TARDIS, Doctor. Follow me."

Without a thought, Charlotte runs behind Rory as he begins leading them down the tunnel. The Doctor, however, glances back in the opposite before joining them.

Not long later, they all rush into the acid room. Charlotte stops at the tub of the liquid flesh, looking over the edge, she watched as it bubbled up. Jimmy goes over to a station, saying as he did, "We can't leave without Buzzer."

"I'll go back for him," said Cleaves.

In all honesty, Charlotte couldn't recall, of the crew members, who lived and died. She knew the real Jimmy, both Jennifers, and the Ganger Cleaves will die but other than that she's clueless. It made her feel useless. Of all vital moments, why can't she just know that information? Why is it always these moments?

Rory lingers in the doorway. "Doctor, look… I'd better tell you, I haven't been quite straight with you-" What Rory wanted to say was cut off by Jennifer pushing him back into the hall as she locks the door.

Charlotte runs over to the door. "Rory!" She shouts as she reached the door, able to see his through the window on the door. She pulls at the door handle, but it didn't even seem to budge.

With Cleaves and Amy, the Doctor rushes up and tries the door to no avail. "Rory Pond!" He exclaims. "Roranicus Pondicus!"

"Rory!" Amy shouts to him, "What the hell are you playing at?"

Looking away from Jennifer, Rory faces them on the opposite end of the window. "They've been throwing away old Flesh and leaving it to rot, alive! I think the world should see that." He turns back to Jennifer.

"Rory, there is no time!" Knocking on the window, the Doctor tried to catch his attention. "This factor's about to explode!" The Doctor moves away from the door, and Amy replaces his spot in front of the window.

Standing at the side of the door, Charlotte stood before a control panel placed on the wall, in hope that there was some way of breaking the lock or some sort of emergency way of opening the door. But, of course, when she pulled open the hatch for the controls, she had to wave a hand in front of her face as smoke billows out.

"No, no, no! Come on," Charlotte cried out as her shoulders slumped when once all the smoke left the panel, she saw nothing but sparking wires and switches burnt to a crisp. Slamming the hatch shut, the brunette heard the last of Rory before he's pulled away by the Ganger Jennifer.

"I'm sorry!" He shouted. Amy pounds on the window, shouting out his name. She moves away from the door, quickly replaced by Cleaves, and leaned on a railing as she took in what happened.

Charlotte stood beside her. "Amy…"

"If anything happens to him." Amy left the sentence open for interpretation, but Charlotte knew what she meant, and knew that she had to make sure everything went to plan (while she always makes sure it does, this time especially).

While the Doctor looks over his results from the sonic's scan over the tub of Flesh, the two grouped up with him beside the vat. Seeing the results, his eyes widened. "This is going to overheat and fill the room with acid, just as a point of reference."

"Is there any way we can stop it?" When he became silent for a moment, Charlotte's eyes widened. "At all?"

"Well… No."

Yet again, Charlotte wasn't even sure if this problem was a part of the episode or not. Where her watch once was, she began massaging her wrist, a nervous antic she's seen popping up recently. _There has to be something we can do, _ she thought. Charlotte looks around the room for anything- a working control panel, an emergency exit, something to ram the door with, but found none of the like.

Her eyes land on the vat, which still boils profusely in the room's center. Has it ever boiled this high before? Most cooking pots have lids to them just for that, so does this Flesh vat have its own? She looks above the vat and her eyes lay on its own lid, hanging above it from a pulley.

At her own cleverness, she beamed and rushed and bent down to the crank. Beginning to turn the crank that lowered the cap (which was quite hard to her astonishment, she really should take advantage one of the TARDIS gyms soon), Charlotte says as everyone's focus turns to her, "It won't stop it, but it sure as hell will buy us some time!"

"Oh, that's brilliant," compliments the Doctor as he watches it go down.

From the opposite end of the vat, Jimmy reminds them, "It'll never hold her."

As the cap continues to lower, the Doctor squats down to keep the eye contact with Jimmy as he responds, "If you have a better plan, I'm all ears. In fact, if you have a better plan, I'll take you to a planet where _everyone _is all ears."

At long last, the cap drops with a bang. Charlotte let out a deep sigh then stood up straight.

Later, as most of them were creating a plan in a corner, including Charlotte, Cleaves, who stands by the vat, shouts to them, "The acid's eating through!" Hearing her, Charlotte turns around and quickly pulls Cleaves back as the building shakes under their feet.

The bubbling flesh pushes the vat's cap inches up and Charlotte's knees buckled as she could only stand by and watched as it happened. She couldn't remember, it was her fault she couldn't remember the thing that'd save their lives. How could she not remember?

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The lid got higher and Charlotte's heart thumped in her chest. "This is all my fault."

"No, stop that," said the Doctor as he glances between the vat and her- as he simultaneously wanted to watch the acid and reassure her this isn't her fault. The Ganger Doctor took her hand in his and said loud enough to be heard above the explosions, "This is _not_ your fault!"

Jimmy steps forward and tried to push the lid back down, but with the acid's increasing force, of course, he struggled. Stepping forward, Dicken attempted to help him before getting pushed away. "Stay back," directed Jimmy. "One of us getting potentially hurt is enough. We don't need more."

Shaking her head, Charlotte takes a single step forward, ready to help, when the door slammed open and the Gangers Jimmy and Dicken. However, just as they did, acid splashed onto the original Jimmy's chest. Charlotte quickly caught the man and lays him on the ground as he heaves; the acid burnt straight through his jumpsuit, just around the size of a tennis ball, and opened up the skin underneath it.

"Let me through!" Shouts his Ganger self, pushing Cleaves to sit across Charlotte on the opposing side of Jimmy's head, he rests his head in his lap while his struggle for air continues.

"There's nothing we can do," says the Doctor. "The acid's reached his heart."

The Ganger Jimmy looks back down at himself. "Hang in there, mate."

"I'm quite handsome from this angle," Jimmy says in between his strives for air, causing Charlotte to give a puff of air.

Ganger Jimmy, on the other hand, barely acknowledges this. "I'm sorry. I'm the fake. Adam deserves his real dad."

"Shut up."

"What do you want me to do?" Ganger Jimmy asks him, still trying to remain calm. "Anything… just say."

"The way things are, mate… It's up to you now." Jimmy slowly lifts a hand up to his neck a pulls on the necklace around his neck, pressing it into his Ganger's palm. "Be a dad. You remember how." Both Jimmy's turn stiff. While one was paralyzed in his spot, with his original self lying dead in his lap, with his cold eyes still opened, there was nothing he wanted to do at that moment but stare at himself.

Seeing this, Charlotte closes the eyes of Jimmy for him. Jimmy takes what his original self pressed in his palm just seconds ago- his wedding band, no, _their _wedding band. This Jimmy lowers the late Jimmy onto the ground carefully.

"Jimmy Wicks," says the Doctor, catching his attention away from the body. "You're a dad."

He takes in and lest go of a deep breath. They watched nervously as Jimmy stood up with a new look of determination on his face. "Let's go."

Charlotte punched his shoulder when they recouped in the Dining Hall, it wasn't a hard one, more of a friendly punch. While Jimmy has a holographic chat with a young boy, his son, Adam, she brought him into a hug. Yes, she still has a few mixed feelings about what he said, and she'd still like to hear an apology from this Doctor, but that doesn't demean the fact she just thought she was going to die.

Of course, he hugged her back, not for common courtesy, but because there was fear on both ends. Albeit, far less on his end because he knew she was going to make it out. Because that's just what she does… All those moments she was separated, and no matter the situation, she always seemed to make it out- even if it meant escaping within a brink of life.

"Charlotte?" He said to her, once realizing something critical.

"What?"

"The original Jimmy isn't here."

She pulled away and tried to reply as calmly as possible, but when she sees Jimmy she sees Gwen. And when she sees Gwen, she hears what he told her. This Doctor hasn't apologized yet, she knew what he meant, but apologizing properly means too much. She stuffed her hands in her windbreaker as she went over the events in the acid room with him, making sure to not mention the fear of her life.

"It's not your fault," he told her, but they were just four words this Doctor keeps repeating without more.

He was about to say more when the Ganger Doctor, who still is believed to be the original, says to Adam, "Daddy's coming home today, Adam." As the child beams, the hologram-call ends.

The Doctor's face quickly turns to the grave expression once the call ends. "Now we need to move."

The Doctor's Ganger leads them down a hall, but when they see Jennifer at the end of the tunnel he halts, everyone else doing the same as they watched her. "Run," he tells them, but no one listens as they watch Jennifer elongate. "Run." Not even he began running as her necks turns long and arms bending down as if ready to run on all fours. "Run!"

He backs up and began sprinting in the other direction. Seeing Jennifer turn into this monster, Charlotte did not need to follow his example as she runs in the way they came in, running into another room as the Monastery began creaking around them- setting a reminder of their time running out.

In the new area, they ran into, both Dickens tried to close the large, metal door with no luck. "We have to stop her," one of them said to the other. "This door doesn't lock."

"No, but the far one does." Without time for opposition, the original Dicken ran into the hall. Shortly after the slam of the door was paired with his shrieks. The door doesn't stop Jennifer, and she can be heard getting closer and closer.

The original Doctor, while everyone, including Charlotte, was pressed against the door to stop Jennifer, looks up to the ceiling. "Here she comes…" the ceiling creaks and out of nowhere, the TARDIS falls at his feet. "Oh, she does like to make an entrance!" He opens the doors and shouts out, "Move!"

"Go, go, go, go!" The Ganger Doctor pushes Ganger Dicken off the door and towards the TARDIS, he follows the order and runs to the ship. Now, he was met with Charlotte, who stood on the other side of Dicken. "Char, go!"

She stood still with her jaw clenched. "No. You were there when I thought I was going to die, alright? You're going to get a proper goodbye, 'cause I know what you're going to do." The Doctor left the side of the door and hugged her tightly, and she did the same. Charlotte could only just reach her head above his shoulder, something she thought of for a millisecond, before realizing he was bent down slightly.

"Are you sure there's no other way?" She asked him as he pulled away. "Are you really sure?"

He nods, raising his eyebrows for emphasis as he responds with, "Charlotte, remember, this is my _choice _to do this. There's nothing you can do to stop it. And remember I trust you, okay? I trust you, so much." She nodded, and then he kissed the top of her head before pushing her towards the TARDIS. "_Go!"_

Charlotte heads to the TARDIS but stops beside Rory when Amy still stands beside the Doctor, "Now's our chance," she told him.

"I have to stay." Jennifer hits against the door, causing his focus to be deterred for a second. "Hold this door closed. Give you time to dematerialize."

"Oh, don't be crazy. Okay, what happens to you?"

"Well, this place is just about to explode. But I can stop her."

"Both of you can survive this, okay?"

The other Doctor steps out from the TARDIS, standing in front of the two. "Or perhaps you think I should stay instead…" His nose scrunched up. "Mr. Smith?"

"No, of course not." Standing in front of him, Amy says, "But look, this man, I've flown with him, you know? And you are amazing and yeah, I misjudged you, but you're not him. I'm sorry."

Charlotte gave a deep sigh. "Amy, bless you, they switched shoes!"

"I'm the Doctor," said the Doctor facing her.

And the one at the door, who stands alongside Cleaves' Ganger says, "And I'm the Flesh." Another clash at the door caused the door to shake.

"You can't be." Amy shakes her head, looking towards the Ganger Doctor. "You're the real him."

"No, I'm not, and I haven't been all along."

"What?"

The original speaks up, "I'm the original Doctor, Amy. We had to know if we were truly the same. It was important, vital, we learned about the Flesh. And we could only do that through your eyes."

Amy rushed over to the Ganger Doctor, hugging him until Jennifer crashes against the door again- creating a crater in it. He pushes her away, and just as Rory called out her name, ran back inside the TARDIS alongside a very hesitant Charlotte.

She stops in the doorway to hear the original Doctor laugh. "Doctor! Hurry up!" She called out. Stepping fully inside the TARDIS, for what felt like the first time in a year, she watched in amusement as Dicken walked around the console with his head held up to the ceiling, hardly taking in the size of the ship.

Just seconds after entering, the rest of the team enter after her and they were off for their first destination.

They just dropped off Jimmy with the red balloon for Adam on a cold beach. As the father met his child, Charlotte stood beside the Doctor, waiting impatiently for his apology. She could feel the tickle up her spine, a sign she'll leave soon. But first, she wanted to hear _his _apology, not his Ganger's.

"It wasn't your fault, none of this was your fault," is how he started off.

She lets out a sharp exhale. "You've been repeating that so much. But what do you mean by that?"

"I just haven't been able to finish what I want to say, with all that's happened." He told her, staying completely serious while Jimmy greets Adam in the background. "All of this, the death, all of them are catalysts for future events… Whether you know about them or not. My point is, you can't see yourself as useless because, if that person, were to be alive, they _could _change something."

She nodded along, but there was still that nagging voice in the back of her head. "But I already have? Is that bad?"

He shook his head. "_Never…_ You just can't save anyone as their death could be deeply important to how the universe functions. But, every now again, someone can be saved and the universe just goes around it… Doesn't make them any less important."

A breeze passes by while the tide comes in. Charlotte stuffs her hands into her pockets as she adds, "I get that. But why did you say you didn't trust me?" Yes, the Ganger Doctor answered this perfectly, but as she's stated before, she wants to hear it from him too.

The Doctor exhaled dramatically. "In those days, I hated you. I was suspicious when you got there, and I was poking at your every action and turned it into something worse than it was because I didn't trust you. Right after I said that I was held accountable, thankfully." He pauses before saying, "I was wrong. Trusting you is one of the best choices I've ever made, and I swear I'll never say something like that again. It's just stupid."

"Alright. I forgive you."

His face scrunched up. "That quick?"

"Well, one, your Ganger already explained it."

"Then why did I!" He exclaimed although he didn't seem totally offended.

"Two, I'm about to leave, so I had to cut it short."

He nods solemnly before quickly remembering something and getting ecstatic, digging in one of his inside pockets. "Oh, Charlotte Mary Thomas-Bolton, I have been waiting for this moment for years." The Doctor grinned to her as he pulls out a cord of twine with a key at the end.

That enough caused Charlotte to gawk. A TARDIS key, an actual TARDIS key. It was about time. She took it from him and proudly put it around her neck.

"So, does that prove I actually trust you?"

"Yep." The pins began poking at her skin, and she knew she was about to leave any second now. And in that last moment she'll have with him before the Battle of Demons Run, she said to him, "Doctor, good luck." And at the end of the final syllable, she was forced to leave once again.

Reappearing was getting easier for her. It was still an uneasy sensation of being pulled from one place to another, but it wasn't necessarily painful. For six hours, after reappearing in early-twentieth-century Chicago, she was taken hostage by a gang- As she was caught eavesdropping on a meeting. Of course, as she was cuffed to a chair, it was the sonic-less Tenth Doctor they brought in and handcuffed to a chair behind her after the six hours.

And, half-an-hour later, Donna Noble became a hostage too… Being dragged in with her mouth duck-tapped, but the tape could only muffle shouts. For some reason, she had the sonic screwdriver and they easily escaped from the handcuffs and returned an alien crown the gang got their hands on to its original planet, Solspir. That's how the Doctor and Donna both became hostages, from trying to get to it before them, but were too late (Donna escaped their clutches but was caught soon).

The Doctor deduced it must've been on Earth a thousand years through the rust, stolen during one of the last Solspirian voyages to the planet- which ended only because of the loss of the King's crown. Charlotte found it interesting, but once she caught up with the two of them, she had to catch some sleep.

Seven hours later she woke up in a sweat. At one point that night Charlotte was having an odd dream, she was at work in her old job at _Shoe-World_ when Taylor Swift walked in and stole everything, even the counters. The celebrity left the store and Charlotte was left alone in what looked like a post-apocalyptic shop.

And then the damned doors opened on their own, a white light from the plains of Midnight flooded the store and burned everything in its wake. It got closer to her. She didn't move, her knees buckled while it got closer and closer. And then it touched her feet, and then she woke up in a sweat.

Knowing there's no way she could get any more sleep, she sat up off her bed. After a few minutes, and changing, she left her room to head to the TARDIS kitchen. After eating breakfast, Charlotte headed to the library, as she wanted to read a little.

However, she quickly forgot of that plan when she saw the Doctor sitting on a couch that's set in between two rows of unbelievably high bookshelves. His legs were kicked up on a coffee table as he read a book.

"What're you reading?" She asked him.

Putting his finger in as a bookmark, he held it up as he says, "_She Was Nice to Mice_. How did you sleep?"

Charlotte rubbed her hands over her face. "Not good." She answers, moving over to sit beside him on the couch. "Could we talk about something that hasn't happened to you yet? I can be vague about it." After they caught up, she learned they just got back from the planet of the Ood.

He set the book down onto the coffee table and turns to her. "Vaguely, but yeah."

"Okay, okay…" she drew out, trying to think of how to begin it. "Well, I- we." Charlotte sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Something happened and I got burned, really bad, and it hurt so much. It just," her voice cracks, "it hurt so much! It felt like forever, and it _hurt _so bad."

As she started to tremble, the Doctor went over to her side, putting an arm of her shoulders as he listened.

"And then…" She pauses as she got choked up. "When I was asleep, I had this dream… I was there again." Her sobs finally escaped- because of the pain she was forced to remember, the pain that made her scared more than the fear she was forced to endure when she didn't know how to they were going to escape the overflowing Flesh vat.

Charlotte was terrified of many things; spiders, failure, rejection… but nowadays she's finding herself becoming more scared of death. If it meant saving someone else, she'll put herself at risk, but if she has a choice, both her and them would make it out unscathed. And she realizes that the source of her fear of Midnight isn't the pain but the looming figure of death.

"I didn't want to die," she sobbed out. "I don't want to die!" She's twenty-seven and in the last month has had two major threats to her life (something she definitely wasn't used to before). Charlotte cries out those same five words repeatedly, each becoming less audible as she said them in her sobs.

The Doctor shifts in his spot to face her, bringing her into a hug, which she returned, as he tells her, "It's alright. Deep breaths." As her sobs began to cool down slightly, Charlotte missed the looks in his eyes from over her shoulder.

It was the look that told he was scared of the same, too. After what the Ood said earlier, he's becoming aware of this regeneration's time left. And of course, he doesn't like it, he refuses to even believe it. The Doctor hugged Charlotte tighter as he thought of the pain she had to endure (as a human, nevertheless). And if there was one thing he was sure of right now, it was how he isn't looking forward to the moment she told him of in the slightest.

_Next up: The Sontaran Strategem (Charlotte Verus the Sontarans)_

A/N:

First of all, if you are going to any of the protests please stay safe!

If you can't go to protests, donate! If you can't donate, sign petitions! .co has tons of resources


	24. charlotte versus the sontarans

_Standing at the console, Donna pilots the TARDIS as the Doctor watches her from behind. _Beaming, Donna glances at the Doctor- who was itching to fly it on his own and has already had to stop himself from doing so in the last thirty seconds. Just two spaces to Donna's left, Charlotte, whose hair was in two braids, does the same.

"Char, pull that lever down quarter-way," he tells her.

Once pulling the said lever a quarter-way down, Charlotte glances over at him. "I'm 'bout to steal the TARDIS," she said with a laugh.

"Yeah, no you aren't." With Charlotte's focus deterred, the TARDIS enters some turbulence. The Doctor quickly went up to the console, twisting around a switch and thus ending the turbulence. Pointing a finger at her, he adds, "Focus," before taking a step back.

A few seconds later, as the TARDIS continues flying with only the Doctor onlooking, Donna grins. "I can't believe I'm doing this!" She says. In response, Charlotte shook her head.

"No, neither can I," replied the Doctor, who watches them like a hawk as they worked around. "Oh, careful!" He immediately goes over to Donna, hitting the console with the hammer. Moving aside, swimming the hammer above his shoulder, he focuses on the scanner- watching it closely. "Left hand down, Donna, left hand down!"

Donna brings down a control on her left and the TARDIS sharply turns and causes the three of them to lose their balance for a second. Holding down onto the console, Charlotte quickly regained her footing when the TARDIS' lurching.

"Getting a bit too close to the 1980s!" he exclaims.

"What am I gonna do?" questioned Donna, "Put a dent in 'em?"

"Well, someone did." The Doctor's sentence trails off as a mobile phone rings.

Charlotte looks around for the said ring. "Is that mine? I've been looking for it." After an Elvis concert, she'd swear someone took it off her, and she was oblivious on whether if that was before or after they met the King of Rock.

"Nope." The Doctor moves past Donna to another part of the console, pulling out from a compartment a mobile phone.

"You've got a mobile?" says Donna, who looked at him with the phone as if it were a joke. "Since when?"

"It's not mine," he tells her before lifting the phone to his ear and answering, "Hello."

* * *

Just a few minutes later the TARDIS materializes in an alleyway where Martha Jones has been waiting for the familiar grinding noise, becoming ecstatic when the blue box finally settles. Out of the three inside, the Doctor was the first to poke his head out of the doors, looking back before seeing Martha and immediately greeting her with a hug.

"No way," a flustered Charlotte said under her breath as she approaches the two, her eyes dead set on Martha, who she has yet to meet. "I mean- whatever. Martha Jones!" Nervously, Charlotte reaches out and shakes her hand. "Charlotte Mary Bolton. Hi."

Martha raised an eyebrow at her. "I know that. Wait, is this your first time meeting me?"

"Yeah, is that obvious?"

"A bit." All of their, including Martha's, heads turn to the TARDIS as the door closes and Donna steps out. "Right," says Martha. "Should have known. Didn't take you long to replace me then."

"Now, don't start fighting." The Doctor waves Donna over. "Martha, Donna. Donna, Martha. Please don't fight, can't bear fighting."

Charlotte lightly elbowed his side. "They aren't going to fight, stupid."

"I've heard all about you," Donna says to Martha as she shakes her hand. "They talk about you all the time."

Martha glances at them. "I dread to think."

"No, no, no. They say nice things," Donna tells her. "Good things. It's an honor really. Honestly."

She rose an eyebrow, looking over to the Doctor, who scratches behind his ear. "What'd they tell you?"

"Forget that," says Donna, catching sight of Martha's engagement ring. "Who's the lucky man?"

"What man?" Questioned the Doctor. "Lucky what?"

"She's engaged, you prawn," responded Donna, rolling her eyes at him as Martha shows off her ring.

Charlotte grinned, looking over at Martha. "Well, who is it?"

"Tom. That Tom Milligan. He's in pediatrics. Working out in Africa right now." She looks between the three. "And yes, I know. I've got a doctor who disappears off to distant places. Tell me about it."

"Is he skinny?" Donna immediately asked.

"No, he's sort of…" Martha waves her hands around as she tried to find the right word. "_Strong._"

"Oo la la," says Charlotte, wiggling her eyebrows to her. However, Martha's nose scrunched up.

Donna points her thumb over at the Doctor. "He is too skinny for words! You give him a hug, you get a paper cut!"

Looking up to the sky, the Doctor sighs. "Oh, I'd rather you were fighting."

"Oh, c'mon," said Charlotte as she nudges his side. "Don't let your ego break so easily."

A walkie-talkie placed on Martha's hip turns on- a voice speaking from it. "Speaking of which…" Her jaw clenches as her mannerisms seemed to change from their friend to a leader when she took the walkie-talkie off its holster and commands the person on the other end, "This is Dr. Jones. Operation Blue Sky is go, go, go. I repeat, this is a go!"

The three left the alleyway on Martha's heel, following her out to stand by as large, loaded trucks and vans drove past and UNIT soldiers entered the facility with their guns on hand. _"All workers lay down your tools and surrender!" _Charlotte hears someone order the worker (all dressed in blue jumpsuits) over the loudspeakers.

"Greyhound Six to Trap One," Martha orders on the walkie-talkie as she began speed-walking, closely followed by the rest. "B Section, go, go, go! Search the ground floor, grid pattern Delta!"

As she stops for a second, the Doctor looks at her with his eyebrows scrunched. "What are you searching for?"

"Illegal aliens." Her eyebrows push together in frustration when she hit the walkie-talkie. A second later, voices were heard again and she runs off while shouting orders.

"Is that what you did to her?" Donna questions him as they watched she sprinted into action. "Turn her into a soldier?"

Arms crossed, Charlotte wondered the same. And, of course, she knew the answer. And, of course, it twisted her stomach to admit how back-to-back life-ending situations caused _her _to change. To survive, she had to change from the woman drifting along in life, not sure where she wanted it to go anymore, to the one she aspired to be; Charlotte has to become someone willing to do whatever it takes for the good.

Once upon a time, Charlotte Bolton was going to be a lawyer. But, in her last few years of University, she only just passed her classes. No law school accepted her, and for a year she did long-distance with Ian while lodging with a friend. Her hope diminished of any school letting her in and her eyes fixed away from that path.

And there's Ian, in a foreign place she's never been. A place she could explore and perhaps fix a few things with him. That's what she did. Leaving England, she crossed the pond and got a job and new friends. Those ties with Ian were fixed (Jessie was still believed to be a friend) and, even with him working late, her hope for a bright future brightened beyond the sun.

She worked to help, even if she could've been replaced in a snap. A lawyer, Shoe store cashier, and a companion of the Doctor all have one thing in common; they help no matter how small. And right now, watching the soldiers rush past them, Charlotte knew her willingness to put herself in danger for good didn't begin when she met the Doctor, it only grew.

Not long after the ruckus diminishes, Martha rejoins their group, where they stood in the same spot on the sidewalk.

The Doctor nods down to her badge. "And you're qualified now? You're a proper doctor."

"UNIT rushed it through given my experience in the field," Martha answers as she began leading them to a trailer. "Here we go. We're establishing a field base on site. They're dying to meet you." She grins back as they neared the trailer.

"Wish I could say the same," the Doctor mumbles.

The trailer has a set of stairs leading up to the inside- which, once Charlotte passed through the entrance area, was met with rows of people sat in front of computers with larger screens hung above them.

Standing in full uniform in front of the control panel, a man listens to Martha as she says, "Operation Blue Sky complete, sir. Thanks for letting me take the lead." She looks over to the Doctor when he steps up beside Charlotte and motioned between him and the man in uniform. "And, this is the Doctor. Doctor, Colonel Mace."

Mace immediately stood at attention, saluting to the Doctor. "Sir!"

However, the Doctor nearly scowled at the site. "Oh, don't salute," he insisted.

"Well, it's an honor, sir!" Mace persists. "I've read all the files on you and, technically speaking, you're still on staff. You never resigned."

Charlotte shakes her head, taking a step towards Mace. "Wait, you said you read _all _the files on him, yeah?"

"Yes."

"Well, where's my salute then?" She questions to the visible confusion of Mace. "Charlotte Mary Bolton. Has to be something about me in there, am I right Colonel Mace?"

Mace immediately went from as if he insulted a celebrity to full attention. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good… You can stop saluting, now."

Donna looks over at the Doctor. "Wait, did he say you worked for them?"

"Yeah, long time ago." He stands on his toes to glance at what everyone was doing on the computers. "Back in the '70s. Or was it the '80s? But it was all a bit more homespun back then."

"Times have changed, sir."

"Yeah, that's enough of the 'sir.'"

"Come on now Doctor, you've seen it," Martha began as she led them to stand closer to the computers. "You've been on board the Valiant and you will too, Charlotte. We've got massive funding from the United Nations. All in the name of home word security."

Mace nods to her. "A modern UNIT for the modern world."

"What, and that means arresting ordinary factory workers?" Donna questions the Colonel. "In the streets, in broad daylight? It's more like Guantanamo Bay out there. Donna, by the way. Donna Noble, since you didn't ask. I'll have a salute."

Mace looks over to the Doctor, who sat down in a spare desk chair at the row of computers. The Doctor rose his eyebrows at him and Mace turns in full attention to Donna. "Ma'am."

"Thank you."

With his chin in his palm, the Doctor says, "Tell me. What's going on in that factory?"

And Mace filled them in: "Yesterday 52 people died in identical circumstances, right across the world, in eleven different time-zones." As he continued, the large screen lit up with the places he mentions. "5 am in the UK, 6 am in France, 8 am in Moscow, 1 pm in China."

"You mean they died simultaneously."

"Exactly," Mace replied to him. "52 deaths at the exact same moment, worldwide."

"How did they die?"

From memory, Charlotte responds, "Just in their cars."

Nodding to her, Martha adds, "They were poisoned. I checked the biopsies, no toxins. Whatever it is, left the system immediately."

The Doctor looks up at the screen. "What have the cars got in common?"

"Completely different makes," answers Martha. "They're all fitted with ATMOS. And that is the ATMOS factory."

Glancing over to her, the Doctor asks, "What's ATMOS?"

Donna chuckled at him. "Oh, come on. Even _I _know that. Everyone's got ATMOS!"

Just a minute later, the group walks down a corridor that looks on over a large factory area where the workers stand with hands on their heads as the UNIT soldiers shout orders. Martha, who leads them down, responds to the Doctor's question on ATMOS, "Stands for Atmospheric Omission System," she says. "Fit ATMOS in your car, reduces CO2 emissions to zero."

"Zero?! No carbon, not at all?"

"Oh, yes," Donna told him. "Sat-nav and 20 quid in shopping vouchers if you introduce a friend. Bargain!" A group of workers is lead past them and Charlotte glances as they walk past.

Colonel Mace stops them beside the railing. "And this is where they make it, Doctor," he tells the man as he leaned over the railing. "Shipping worldwide. Seventeen factories across the globe, but this is the central depot, sending ATMOS to every country on Earth."

"And you think ATMOS is alien?" He asked.

"It's our job to investigate that possibility." Mace stood up straight and directed them forward. "Doctor?" With the Colonel and Martha leading them, they walked past more UNIT soldiers ordering the workers, and were lead to an office placed just outside of the chaos, but could still hear the footsteps of the workers as they were marched out.

"And here it is, laid bare," Colonel Mace said to them as they glance around the office area. "ATMOS threaded through any and every make of car."

As he replies, the Doctor slid on his glasses as he looks over some objects. "You must've checked it, before it went on sale."

Martha nods. "We did, but found nothing," she replies. "That's why I thought we needed an expert."

"Really?" Says the Doctor. "Who'd you get?" Everyone kept quiet, raising their eyebrows as he turns over to them once noticing the silence. "Oh, right!" He exclaimed when it came to him. "Me! Yes, good!"

With a shake of her head, Martha left alongside Mace, and Donna and Charlotte moved to group up beside the Doctor. "Okay, so why would aliens be so keen on cleaning out atmosphere?" Donna questions him as he held up an object eye-level.

"Very good question…"

"Maybe they want to help," mused Donna. "Get rid of pollution and stuff."

Shrugging as an answer to her, Charlotte asks, "Doctor, how many cars are on Earth?"

"It's 2009, so…" His nose scrunched up. "800 million? Just about."

"Well, imagine if you could control all of them." She replied, easily catching his attention. "800 million weapons."

* * *

Just minutes later, after Martha and Mace returned to the office, Donna slipped past with Charlotte following her example and left to the personnel department. While Charlotte flips through a large binder consisting of the workers' personal information (birthdays, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) as she sat down in a rolling chair, Donna looks through a cabinet of other binders.

"Have you ever had a real job?" Donna asked her.

"Well, yeah," she answers, repeatedly flipping through the pages, becoming bored. "I had a few. At my first one, at this restaurant, if you could call it that, I was fired for never showing up."

"Seriously?" From how Donna cracked a smile, it was clear she didn't believe her. _"You?_"

Charlotte glances up from her binder. "Yeah… Took me a while to get used to actually trying. Up to a few years ago, actually. Still, _sick_ days."

Still, at the cupboard of binders, Donna repeats under her breath, "sick days?" Just as her eyes caught the binder that was supposed to hold all records of the workers' sick days.

Just after reconvening, the two quickly made their way back to the office, both holding a binder as they reentered. "Oi, you lot!" said the redhead right when they regrouped, catching the attention of Martha and the Doctor, who stand together, and caused Mace to return from where he chatted with other UNIT commanders.

"All your storm troopers and your sonics… You're rubbish! Should've come with us."

"Why?" Replied the Doctor. "Where've you been?"

"Personnel," she answers. "That's where the weird stuff's happening, in the paperwork. 'Cause I spent years working as a temp, I can find my way around an office blindfold, and the first thing I noticed is an empty file." She held the said binder in front of her.

"Well, the second thing," Charlotte corrected under her breath, only to receive a sharp look from her.

The Doctor, however, didn't even mention it. "Why, what's inside it?" He questioned. "Or what's not inside it?"

"Sick days. There aren't any." She answers while opening up the binder- which is as empty as when ATMOS bought it. "Hundreds of people working here and no one's sick. Not one hangover, man flu, sneaky little shopping, nothing. Not ever! They don't get ill."

"That can't be right," replied Mace, whose eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.

"And then there's this." Charlotte sets her binder on the desk, opening it to the first of hundreds of pieces of paper- each supposed to contain the workers' information, but all consisting of just their names and addresses. "Not even contact information, phone number, birthday." She flipped to the next person and the third. "Almost nothing about them."

Mace looks over the binder for himself looking up when Donna says to him, "You've been checking out the building, should've been checking out the workforce."

"I can see why they like you," Martha tells her.

While Donna hums in response, Charlotte looks over at her with a thin smile. "You're _alright_."

"Super temp!" said Donna.

The Colonel turns over to Martha. "Doctor Jones, set up a medical post, start examining the workers. I'll get them sent through."

Martha leaves with Donna not far behind and the Doctor and Charlotte follow Colonel Mace down a corridor. "So, Colonel Mace, where'd ATMOS come from?" She asks him.

"Luke Rattigan himself," the Colonel answered as if he was a household name.

Looking over to him with, the Doctor's eyes narrowed. "And 'himself' would be?"

A moment later, the three surround a computer as a photo of Luke Rattigan- a young man with brown hair- renders in. "Child genius. Invented the Fountain Six search engine when he was 12 years old," Mace fills them in. "Millionaire overnight. Now runs the Rattigan Academy. A private school, educating students, handpicked from all over the world."

"A hothouse for geniuses, wouldn't mind going there." Puzzledly, Colonel Mace looks over at him, to which he responds, "I get lonely."

Charlotte and the Doctor walk side-by-side while Mace leads them into an area of the factory occupied by UNIT jeeps, soldiers, and more lines of the workers' being led off.

"You are not coming with me!" Insisted the Doctor towards Mace. "I want to talk to this Luke Rattigan, not point a gun at him."

"It's ten miles outside London. How are you going to get there?"

"Well, then get me a jeep!"

"According to the records, you travel by TARDIS."

Sighing, Charlotte held back an eye-roll. "You have to be kidding me. Do you think we'd want to bring _the _TARDIS to the front lines? I mean, seriously."

"I see," says Mace. "So you do have weapons, but choose to keep them hidden. Jenkins!"

As another soldier joins them, Charlotte looked over to the Doctor, knocking her head and glancing at the back of Mace- indicating how hollow she knew his head had to have been when saying that. However, her head turns ahead when Jenkins, a man around her age, joins them.

"Sir!"

"You will accompany the Doctor and Miss Bolton and take orders from them."

Scrunching his nose up the Doctor says, "Yeah, I don't do orders."

Charlotte nudged his side. "Lighten up."

"Any sign of trouble, get Jenkins to declare a Code Red. And good luck, ma'am-" he salutes, and Charlotte gave a cocky smile, "sir." Mace salutes to the Doctor, too, much to his displeasure.

"I said no salutes," he groaned, rolling his head back.

In response, Charlotte turns serious, looking to Mace in no laughing matter. "Colonel Mace, this is a direct order from me-" the man stood up straight while the Doctor rolled his eyes- "No matter what the Doctor says, _always _salute him and me. And _always _call him 'sir.'"

As he was told, Mace saluted her. "Yes, ma'am."

"Oh, I give up."

Mace leaves and Charlotte focused on him. "This is just the beginning. Next, they'll be bowing."

"I dread the day."

Charlotte pushed his shoulder as she replies, "I don't." Donna rejoined them and Charlotte decided to stand alongside the UNIT soldier. "Jenkins, right?" She asked him.

Jenkins immediately goes from a slouch to a salute. "Yes, ma'am. Ross Jenkins."

Grinning from the title, Charlotte waved a hand in between them, which told him he could relax. "Did Mace send out that order I gave him?"

"Yes," answered Jenkins. "He just sent out the order to us through the radios." He taps on his earpiece.

"Well, that's cool."

"They're brand new," he told her. "Just got these earpieces a week ago."

She rose her eyebrows, nodding her head along. "Cool," responded Charlotte, however, she wasn't interested and was trying to be nice.

Ross looks down at his watch. "We should be going soon." He glances over at where Donna and the Doctor stand chatting away. "Ready when you are, sir!" Jenkins called over to him while Charlotte climbed into the Jeep's bench-like front seat.

Just a moment later, with Ross behind the wheel and to Charlotte's left, the Doctor to her right and Donna beside the door, they were off and began driving away from the factory.

"Broken moon of what?" Donna asks him, referring to their previous conversation.

He sighed. "I know, know."

* * *

A minute later the Jeep stops at the side of the road, at the beginning of a neighborhood with people walking about in the streets. As this was her neighborhood, Donna jumps out of the Jeep.

"See you later!" Charlotte hollered back to her as she began closing the door.

"And you be careful!" She responded just before the Jeep began pulling away, leaving her to drive further down the road and to the Rattigan Academy.

_Next up: The Sontaran Strategem Part Two (Charlotte Versus the Sontarans Part Two)_

A/N: Had a bit of writer's block the last few days, so wouldn't be surprised if this chapter wasn't as good.


End file.
